Box Score SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — So much for preseason predictions.

The Dominican University of California men's basketball team, picked in November to finish last with a new coach this season in the Pacific West Conference by league coaches, stunned touted Grand Canyon University on Tuesday night, upsetting the league's No. 2 ranked preseason team 72-62.

The Penguins (2-10, 1-0) scored the first seven points of the second half to build a 21-point lead on the 'Lopes (7-3, 1-1) then hung on to post their second straight home victory this season. Dominican and new Head Hoach Booker T. Harris has played its other 10 games this season on the road.

“We have been playing good teams all the time at their place,” Harris said, noting that their 10 road losses came against teams with an accumulative 60-36 record. “Our guys stuck to the game plan. They could have split up at one point but they settled back down and got back to what we were having success at doing.”

Ricky Wofford had 17 points, six rebounds and four assists – all season-highs. Jacob Noisat contributed a game-high 18 points and a game-high 12 rebounds and freshman Dartanyon Meggs netted a career-high 10 points off the bench. Meggs' three-point play gave Dominican a 49-31 lead with 14:07 to go before Grand Canyon reeled off 11 consecutive points.

For Wofford, the victory was a product of hard work and extra shooting practice late at night by him and his teammates. He connected on 6-of-7 shots in the game and Dominican, as a team, shot 58.8 percent from the floor, its second-best shooting performance on the season and its best from 3-point range (4-of-6).

“It's all about confidence,” said the 5-foot-9 junior point guard, who had only one turnover in 34 minutes. “This goes to show we can play with anybody.”

The Penguins played a spectacular first half, beating the pressing/running 'Lopes, the league's leading offensive team, at their own game. Noisat started an 8-0 run off a pass by Xander McNally then McNally flew to the basket to get an offensive rebound to feed Meggs for another Penguins basket. Next Myles Carrillo scored a fastbreak layup on a pass by Wofford then Wofford netted his own fastbreak layup off a pass from McNally to give Dominican a 28-15 lead with six minutes left in the half.

“We can get up and down the floor, too,” Wofford said. “Just because we like to slow it down from time to time doesn't mean we can't play that style. Our team can play slow, fast, whatever.”

Noisat topped Dominican with 10 points and five rebounds in the first half. Wofford and Meggs added seven points apiece and McNally had three of his game-high five steals and three of his four assists. The Penguins, who shot 56.7 percent from the floor in the first 20 minutes, trailed only once – for 10 seconds – before Noisat tied the game at 9 and Connor Haysbert gave Dominican the lead for good with an offensive rebound basket with 15:57 to go in the first half.

GCU, which came into the game averaging almost 73 points a game, tallied only 24 in the first half on 7-of-22 shooting, 31.8 percent. 

Dominican outrebounded the taller 'Lopes 36-30 in the game and had four blocked shots, three by Jammall Clark.

“All in all the execution offensively was great and we won the defensive rebounding battle and that played an important role in this win,” Harris said.

The Penguins, after playing 10 of their first 11 games on the road, will play consecutive home games for the first time this season on Thursday when they host Dixie State College. Game time at the Conlan Center is 7:30 p.m. and willl be broadcast live online at http://radio.dominican.edu and www.dominicanathletics.com/livevideo.