Box Score SAN DIEGO, Calif. — "#greatnightobeapenguin," tweeted Dominican University of California Director of Athletics Brandon Leimbach after the men's basketball team fended off a second-half surge and held on for a 68-58 victory over host Point Loma on Thursday night.

It was a really great night if your name is Connor Haysbert. The senior center received some big news in the morning — he was one of five players in the entire NCAA Division II West Region to be named to the Capital One Academic All-District NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Team for District 8.

He followed that up with a career night, going 10-of-15 from the field for a career-high 26 points. He also matched a career-high by pulling down 12 rebounds. Matt Hayes drained four three-pointers to tally 18 points and Devin Golston had 10 points as the Penguins (14-7/8-5 PacWest) completed the season sweep of the Sea Lions (11-8/6-7 PacWest).

"It felt really good to be able to get in a rhythm right away after struggling playing here last year," said Haysbert, referring to a personal 1-for-7 performance last season even though the Penguins also won that game. "The guards really made an effort to look for me on drives and post entries and that really got me going tonight.

"It's a great honor being named Academic All-District and I just wanted to go out and play well like the rest of the players on that list," added Haysbert.

It seemed like smooth sailing for the Penguins after amassing an 11-point lead a quarter into the night. From there, Haysbert poured in six points with a pair of free throws from Christopher Schwartz-Edmisten mixed in for an 8-0 Dominican run that gave the Penguins their largest lead of the night, 32-13.

Point Loma didn't go away as quietly as Dominican would have hoped. The Sea Lions cut the lead to 38-25 at intermission and used a 15-4 run to pull within two points at the seven-minute mark when Judd Welfringer buried a three-pointer.

The teams traded baskets down the stretch but the Penguins never relinquished the lead, scoring eight of their last 11 points at the free throw line over the final five minutes.

Welfringer's 13 points led the Sea Lions.

Hopefully the Penguins' success carries over as Dominican looks to make the PacWest Conference Tournament for the second straight season. The tournament will be hosted by Point Loma in March. The Penguins, currently in control of the fifth seed, have shot the ball well at Golden Gymnasium the past two seasons, shooting 48 percent (47-of-98) from the field in two games.

From San Diego, Dominican now heads to Utah to face Dixie State University (15-3/9-3), which is tied for No. 20 in the latest NCAA Division II rankings. That game is slated for 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 1 at Burns Arena.