Box Score CHICO, Calif. — The Dominican University of California men's basketball team expended much of its energy playing catchup in an 88-79 loss to San Francisco State on Saturday night in the second night of the Mac Martin Invitational hosted by Chico State.

Matt Hayes' led Dominican's comeback effort with 24 points on 8-of-16 shooting. A night after being held scoreless for the first time in his Dominican career, senior Devin Golston rebounded with a personal effort of 22 points in a full 40 minutes of action, including seven of the team's first nine points.

While the Penguins had four players in double digits — Connor Haysbert and Christopher Schwartz-Edmisten each added 10 points in the loss — The Penguins missed the presence of starting guard and second-leading scorer Dominique Taplin (14.7 ppg). The junior guard was forced to miss his first game with a thigh contusion suffered in Friday night's loss to Chico State.

The Penguins spotted San Francisco State a 7-0 lead and trailed by 10 points less than eight minutes into action. Good ball movement by the Penguins and eight points from Hayes cut the lead to one, then Myles Carrillo tied the game at 21-21 with a three-pointer of his own with 9:23 on the clcok. The Penguins took a six-point lead, their largest of the night, on a Golston three-ball with under five minutes left in the half but the Gators finished on a four-point run to tie the contest at 38-38.

San Francisco State jumped out again in the second half and took a 50-44 lead less than five minutes into the half. That lead swelled to 13 around the nine-minute mark until Dominican rallied. A Myles Carrillo steal at midcourt led to a Golston dunk, which sparked a 14-4 Penguins run that trimmed the lead to three with just over four minutes to go. The Gators built the lead back to seven with 58 seconds to go and while the Penguins trimmed the lead to three with 32 seconds left, Dominican was forced to foul in the final seconds and missed its final four field goal attempts.

San Francisco State's Nefi Perdomo led all players with 25 points on 9-of-13 shooting.

Dominican returns home to the Conlan Center to begin Pacific West Conference action on Dec. 5 and 7 versus Azusa Pacific and Point Loma. Tipoff for both games is slated for 7:30 p.m. with live coverage available at dominicanathletics.com/live.

Dec. 7 is also Gold Rush Night, where the Penguins will debut their new adidas gold uniforms. 100 lucky fans will receive a gold Dominican Athletics t-shirt courtesy of Gold Rush Jewelers.