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SAN FRANCISCO — Booker T. Harris' homecoming at the University of San Francisco was bittersweet.

Harris, who was a guard on the Dons' last NCAA tournament team in 1998, returned to historic War Memorial Gymnasium on Saturday night as head coach of the Dominican University of California men's basketball team. He was pleased that they almost overcame early foul trouble, trailing by only three points in the second half before the Dons pulled away for a 93-76 win.

“I thought it would be just another game but then you walk through the hallways and see what's changed and you remember what it was like to be in here every day to practice,” Harris said. “I was proud of how our team played tonight. We were engaged during timeouts and we never felt like we were out of the game.”

Devin Golston led the Penguins (6-4) with 14 points, yet he was one of many Dominican players saddled with foul trouble.  Teammate Jammall Clark added 13 points and a team-high five rebounds while Connor Haysbert contributed 10 points, eight in the second half.

Defensively, the Penguins, who hadn't played in a game since Dec. 17, didn't have an answer for Cole Dickerson, who scored a career-high 30 points and grabbed game-high 10 rebounds for the Dons (7-6), who shot 56 percent from the floor. Dickerson helped taller USF outrebound the Penguins 42-27 and outscore them 40-12 in the paint in the non-conference contest.

“It's one of those things where our guys get to see what it's like to play a really good team and how we have to execute and finish plays,” Harris said.

The Dons overcame an early Dominican lead by hitting seven consecutive shots to build a 13-point lead, 19-6, before the Penguins rallied. Three three-point shots in a row by Golston, Dominique Taplin, and Matt Hayes sparked a 13-5 run by Dominican that pulled the Penguins to within five points, 24-19, midway through the first half.
Dominican then encountered foul problems, forcing four of its five starting players to the bench and the Dons into the bonus situation with 9:10 remaining in the half.  The Penguins were whistled for seven of the first eight fouls in the game and USF capitalized by using free throws to stretch its lead back up to 12 points.

However, the Penguins came back, even though Harris had four freshmen on the floor. Freshmen KJ Logue, Christopher Schwartz-Edmisten, and Hayes combined to score 10 consecutive Dominican points and twice the Penguins closed the gap to four points before the Dons closed the half by scoring the last five points for a 46-37 advantage at intermission.

“It was good for those young players to see what we need to do to get stronger and overall function better as a team,” Harris said.

The Penguins rallied again early in the second half. Golston, limited to seven minutes in the first half, scored six points and Haysbert, limited to three minutes in the first half, added four as Dominican cut the Dons' lead to three, 50-47. But two minutes later Golston, the team's top scorer and rebounder this season, picked up his third foul and came out of the game. By the time he returned, USF had expanded its lead to 11, 64-53, with 12 minutes to play. It was a nine-point game, 79-70, following a Taplin three-pointer with five minutes to play before the Dons scored 14 of the final 20 points.

The Penguins, predicted to finish seventh in a Pacific West Conference coaches' preseason poll this year, are currently tied for first place in the PacWest. They resume league play on Jan. 5 at UH Hilo on the Big Island, the first game in a three-game road trip to Hawai'i.