Box Score BOX SCORE

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — Jacob Noisat scored 19 of his career-high 24 points in the first half and Ricky Wofford had 11 of his 13 points in the second half Tuesday night as the Dominican University of California men's basketball team held off Academy of Art University 82-68 for its fourth consecutive victory.

Jammall Clark added a career-high 16 points, seven rebounds, three blocked shots and career-best four assists and Connor Haysbert tallied 10 points as the Penguins (7-15/6-5) while Czar Robotham had a team-high 22 points for the Urban Knights (3-19/1-11).

With the victory, the Penguins, picked to finish last in a preseason PacWest coaches poll, tie idle Grand Canyon University for fifth place in the league with a record of 6-5, the first time Dominican has had a winning record in PacWest play in February since joining it in 2009.

“It's a grind-it-out win at home and it's another conference win and conference wins don't come easy,” said first-year Head Coach Booker T. Harris.

Dominican's four-game winning streak is its longest since the Penguins won five in a row from Jan. 22 to Feb. 5, 2009 when Dominican was a member of the NAIA's California Pacific Conference.

The Penguins led by as many as 13 points in the first half but Academy of Art three times closed to within a point, the last time at 62-61 with 7:01 to go. Dominican then went on a 9-0 run, capped by a Xander McNally driving lay-up for a 71-61 advantage with 4:10 remaining.
 McNally, the nation's leader in steals in NCAA Division II, did not record a steal in the game, ending a streak where he had at least one in 14 consecutive games.  He did, however, had two blocked shots

The two teams battled back and forth in the first half until Haysbert came off the bench to score six quick points and, with Noisat, catapult the Penguins from an 18-18 tie into the lead.  Dominican then extended it. A driving lay-up by Myles Carrillo off an assist by Clark then an offensive rebound bucket by Clark followed by three Noisat lay-ups, one off a beautiful feed by Carrillo, pushed the Penguins' lead to 43-30, capping a 19-8 run.

The last Dominican streak ended at on a three-point play by Noisat, who also had a game-high eight rebounds. He connected on 8-of-9 shots from the floor in the first 20 minutes, 10-of-15 for the game. He and Clark also had five rebounds and Clark had all of his four assists in the first half.

“We didn't have our defensive energy that we've had in the past three games in the first half,” Harris said. “You knew they were going to score with the No. 2 (Ameer Shamsud-din) and No. 4 scorers (Will Overton) in the conference and we don't have that.  We did a good enough job of letting them hit their marks but no one else really stepped up to beat us.”

The Penguins leave Friday for a 10-day, four-game PacWest road trip to Hawaii that starts with a game at Hawai'i Pacific University on Saturday, February 11. The teams will tip-off at 9:30 p.m. Pacific time.