Box Score HONOLULU, Hawai'i — Junior Jammall Clark tallied a career-high 18 points, including a pair of crucial slam dunks in the final minute, and sophomore Connor Haysbert added 16 points capped by a couple of clinching free throws with 16.6 seconds left to play Monday as the Dominican University of California men's basketball team beat Chaminade University 70-65 for a Pacific West Conference victory.

Haysbert's three-point play with 3:44 remaining gave the Penguins (8-16/7-6) the lead for good while at the same time drawing the fifth foul on Matt Cousins, the league's second leading rebounder and third leading scorer for the Silverswords (9-10/7-5).  Clark, who connected on 7-of-9 field goal tries, also had seven rebounds, tying him with junior Derek Ober for team honors. Ober contributed nine points as did Jacob Noisat. Noisat and senior Mark Lewis, who had eight points, fouled out of the game.

Senior Xander McNally had three steals in the game and now trails Adam State's Jamiko Verner by two for the nation's lead in NCAA Division II.

The victory, Dominican's fifth in its last six games, avenged a 78-70 loss to Chaminade at the Conlan Center on Jan. 19.

“It was the tale of two different games,” said Head Coach Booker T. Harris. “The last time at home  we got popped early on [falling behind by 18 points] but our team sometimes has bursts of energy, and tonight we had it. Those guys knew it was close and they believed the whole time that they were in the game and all they needed were [defensive] stops and rebounding.”

The Penguins, who converted 15 Chaminade turnovers into 22 points, led most of the second half and in fact had a seven-point spread, 51-44, on a Lewis lay-up with 11 minutes to play. But the Silverswords came back and took the lead, 53-51, on a rare Cousins 3-pointer with 9:02 to go.

The teams battled back and forth until Haysbert, rebounding his own miss, put the Penguins ahead for the last time.

“That was a huge momentum swing for us because we needed a basket and Cousins is their guy,” Harris said.

Dominican outrebounded Chaminade after the first 10 minutes of the game and also outshot them from the field and at the foul line, two nights after the Penguins missed 16 of 24 free throws in a disappointing loss at Hawai'i Pacific University. They made 15 of 22 foul shots versus the Silverswords.

The Penguins started and ended the first half fast and furious. They grabbed a 4-1 lead in the first 73 seconds but then missed their next seven shots and were outrebounded 10-4 as the Silverswords constructed a nine-point lead, 22-13.

Dominican rallied, lending support to Haysbert, who scored eight of the Penguins' first nine points the game. Noisat had four points in an 8-0 run by the Penguins to close within a point of Chaminade.

The Silverswords responded, building their lead back up to eight before the Penguins closed out the first half in impressive fashion. A Lewis jumper, followed by a Clark hoop, then another Lewis hoop from 3-point range ignited Dominican. The Penguins scored seven points in the final 17 seconds to close with a 9-0 run to take a stunning 36-32 lead to the locker room.

Picked to finish last in the league in a preseason poll of coaches, Dominican is now pushing for a top of the division finish in the PacWest standings. The Penguins play at BYU-Hawaii on Thursday, February 16. Tipoff is slated for 9:30 p.m. Pacific.