Box Score RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Wednesday night's Pacific West Conference men's basketball game between two teams unabated in conference play, Dominican University of California and California Baptist University, had all the drama a basketball fan could ask for. Unfortunately for the Penguins, a healthy lead and a late comeback effort wasn't enough in an eventual 88-76 loss.

The Penguins (9-3/3-1) controlled the tempo — and the score — early. The Penguins grabbed a 6-0 lead and went on a 10-0 run for a 19-3 at the 15-minute mark. The Lancers (10-0/4-0) chipped away though and had the lead down to 22-16 by the 10-minute mark. Two and a half minutes later, a 7-0 run had swung the momentum to the home team. Back-to-back Ryan Berg three-pointers put the Lancers ahead, 29-27, with 5:35 to go a 10-0 Lancers run found the Penguins trailing by nine. Despite shooting 59 percent in the half, Dominican found itself trailing 49-38 at intermission.

Dominican committed an uncharacteristically high nine turnovers in the first half, which resulted in 14 points the other direction. While the Penguins pulled down the first seven rebounds of the game, by halftime they had been outworked on the glass 22-18.

The Penguins whittled the lead down to four twice in the second half and made it interesting at the five-minute mark when a Devin Golston layup cut the lead to a single basket, 68-66. However, CBU scored the next six points, five from Berg, and pushed the lead back to eight. Two more Golston free throws trimmed the lead to six but the Penguins would be forced to foul and would never get closer.

Golston led the Dominican effort with a season-high 24 points on 9-of-16 (.563) shooting. Connor Haysbert added 15 points and Matt Hayes scored 11 points. Dominique Taplin contributed 13 points before fouling out in the final minute. Golston and Taplin each pulled down eight rebounds.

Berg led all players with 27 points as he helped CBU improve from 16-of-41 (.390) shooting in the first half to 12-of-23 (.565) in the second half. He made half of his field goal attempts, going 8-for-16 from the field and 5-for-10 from behind the three-point line, and went a perfect 6-for-6 from the charity stripe.

That leaves CBU and Dixie State University (8-0), which topped Cal State Dominguez Hills 77-59 in non-conference action, as the two PacWest teams still unbeaten this season.

Dominican closes out the calendar year at home in the Conlan Center on Saturday, Dec. 21 vs. Fresno Pacific University. Tipoff versus the Sunbirds (5-6/0-3) is slated for 7:30 p.m. with live coverage available at dominicanathletics.com/live.