Box Score HONOLULU, Hawai'i — The Dominican University of California men's basketball team found itself in an early hole on Monday night and never recovered. In the end, a late Penguins run came up short and the Penguins dropped their Pacific West Conference contest at Chaminade 74-70.

Dominican (7-5/3-1) trailed 13-0 before Dominique Taplin put the Penguins on the scoreboard three minutes in and the Silver Swords (5-7/2-2) lead grew to as large as 16, 18-2 , just two minutes later. The Penguins were forced to play from behind and made it a five-point battle at the five-minute mark of the first half with a pair of Devin Golston free throws. Chaminade pushed the lead back to 13 though and entered halftime with a nine-point lead, 36-27.

After going just 11-of-32 (.344) in the first half, the Penguins went 17-of-29 (.586) in the second half and made things interesting late, in large part by holding the Silver Swords to 9-of-32 (.281) shooting in the second half. However, Chaminade opened the second half of play with five straight points to make it a 14-point game and led by that margin with as late as 11 minutes to go. A 21-8 run by Dominican trimmed the lead to a single point, 63-62, with under five minutes to play but that's as close as the Penguins would get. Dominican was forced to foul and the lead ebbed between two and five points, with nine of Chaminade's final 11 points coming at the free throw line.

De'Andre Haskins led all players with 20 points and added nine rebounds for the Silver Swords. Bennie Murray scored 19 points and Lee Bailey added 17 points. Tyree Harrison led all players with 12 rebounds.

Golston, named earlier in the week to the PacWest Fantastic 15 for the fifth straight week, was Dominican's leading scorer yet again with 17 points off the bench.

Jammall Clark went 7-of-8 from the field for 14 points with five rebounds and three blocks. Taplin added 12 points, four rebounds, and an assist. Myles Carrillo came off the bench for 10 points, five rebounds, and an assist. Derek Ober scored nine points and pulled down nine rebounds in his first start of the season.

Dominican has one more game in Hawai'i. The Penguins will look to snap a six-game losing streak against Hawai'i Pacific University on Wednesday, Jan. 7 in the Neal S. Blaisdell Center in downtown Honolulu. The men will play the early game at 5:00 p.m. HST followed by the women at 7:00 p.m. HST.