Box Score SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — What a difference a year makes. The last time the Dominican University of California men's basketball team played Dixie State, the Red Storm, co-champions of the Pacific West Conference, beat the Penguins by 44 points in St. George, Utah.

The Penguins got their revenge on Thursday night. And how. They rallied from an eight-point deficit in the second half to post a stunning 73-72 upset victory over the Red Storm in overtime in the Conlan Center. Xander McNally put the Penguins in front for good with a spectacular thunder offensive rebound dunk and Jacob Noisat scored seven  of his nine points in OT for Dominican (3-10/2-0) to shock the Red Storm (7-4/2-1).

The Penguins, picked in preseason by league coaches to finish last this season, will be playing for first place against California Baptist (9-1/3-0) on Saturday night at home in the PacWest Game of the Week.

Junior guard Ricky Wofford had a team-high 14 points and a career-high seven rebounds but it was senior Mark Lewis, among others, who sparked the comeback. Lewis, one of five Dominican players to score in double figures, tallied 11 of his 13 points in the second half. He tied the game at 52 in regulation on a layup on a pass by Jammall Clark off a steal by McNally, then Lewis netted another layup for a 54-52 lead with 1:44 to go.

Lewis had five points in 25 minutes in the 84-40 loss at Dixie State last February 10.

“We have a different team this year,” Lewis said.

The Penguins in two games this week have upset Grand Canyon and Dixie State, both picked in preseason to finish second in the PacWest in a poll of league coaches.

“The two together are definitely the two biggest wins I've ever had here,” said McNally, a senior guard. “We have something to build towards.”

McNally, who had two points, four turnovers, no rebounds and no assists in 24 minutes in that 44-point defeat at Dixie State. He had four points, a team-high eight rebounds, a team-high six assists, two blocked shots, and only two turnovers in 38 minutes against the Red Storm on Thursday night.

“We had a rugged schedule in preseason [10 road losses to teams with a combined 60-36 record, a .625 winning percentage] but conference play is what I've been worried about and getting better and getting confidence,” said Dominican coach Booker T. Harris. “The 2011 season was memorable for all the wrong reasons. I told them to pick themselves up and realize that they have an opportunity to play [better] games here. Our seniors have had a limited amount of games in their career so they should make it special and memorable for them this year.”

Against the Red Storm, statistically the league's best defensive team, Jeff Rerucha had 11 points for the Penguins and Clark had 10, including a basket with 50 seconds to go in regulation that put Dominican ahead 56-52 and capped a 20-8 run.

The Penguins trailed most of the second half after Noisat, the team's leading scorer and rebounder, who was saddled by foul trouble in the first half, scored his first points of the game on a 3-point play for a 34-33 lead with 18:06 to go.

The Red Storm then rallied, building an eight point lead, 44-36 with 11:36 left before Connor Haysbert recorded Dominican's first field goal in more than seven minutes. Haysbert didn't stop there, scoring the Penguins' next six points, 10 for the game. Then, Lewis knocked down a pair of free throws and suddenly, with 4:48 left, Dominican was within a point of Dixie State, 47-46.

Though the Penguins got off to a fast start – a McNally steal-and-slam dunk 16 seconds into the game followed by a Wofford 3-point shot – for a 5-2 lead,  Dixie State was able to repeatedly penetrate the Dominican defense. At the midway mark of the first half, the Red Storm surged to a four-point lead but the Penguins were hanging in with Noisat (foul trouble) and senior leader McNally (ankle injury) on the bench for a long spell.

Then Dominican came alive thanks to Rerucha, a redshirt junior who had only one field goal in 21 minutes in the first 12 games this season. In a three-minute span, Rerucha proceeded to score 11 straight Penguins points, nine on three consecutive 3-point shots over Dixie State, the league's leading team in defensive 3-point shooting percentage.

Rerucha's last 3-pointer pushed the Penguins back into the lead, 23-20, with 4:20 left in the opening half. The Red Storm rallied to retake the lead but Wofford, who had 10 points in the first half, scored on a pass by McNally (who had three assists, two steals and two blocked shots in the first half) to tie the game at 31 with 12.3 seconds to go in the opening half.

Though Dixie State shot 56 percent from the floor and outrebounded Dominican 14-10, the Penguins had the Red Storm in a deadlock at intermission.

Dominican, winners of four consecutive home games for the first time since the 2009 season, will play its third home game in five days on Saturday when they host Cal Baptist, the newest member of the PacWest, to Conlan Center for the first time. Game time is 7:30 p.m. and will be broadcast live online at http://radio.dominican.edu and www.dominicanathletics.com/livevideo.