SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — The Dominican University of California men's basketball team is becoming all too familiar with close ball games. Three of the Penguins' five contests this season have been decided by one possession. Unfortunately, Dominican was on the short side of things on Tuesday night, a tough 85-82 home loss to Sonoma State.

Nine minutes into the game, Sonoma State finally took the game's first two-possession lead, 16-11, with a pair of free throws by David Ahern. The Penguins tied the game back at 16-16 and the score remained close until the three-minute mark when SSU broke a 27-27 tie with a nine-point run. A Josh Armstrong layup ended the run and sent Dominican into the locker room facing a 38-31 deficit.

The Penguins shaved the lead to four but saw it quickly expand back to 11. The gap grew to as large as 16 and Dominican still faced an 11-point hole at the final media timeout. The Penguins had to work quickly in the final minutes and made a game of it. Down eight after a Mike Harris layup, Dominican started a run with two Jonny Bates free throws, then cut the lead to four on a Taplin layup. With under a minute left, Dominican was forced to foul and Jabri Jenkins made both of his free throws to extend the SSU lead to six. Matt Hayes knocked down a three-pointer with 52 seconds to go and after the Penguins got a stop with 17 seconds, had a chance to tie the game. However, the comeback attempt came up short when neither Taplin or Hayes' three-point attempts went down in the Penguins' final possession.

Dominican was unable to stop junior transfer James Davis, who scored a career-high 36 points on 11-of-18 shooting, including seven three-pointers. Three other SSU players reached double-figures, including JJ Mina (16 points), Mike Harris (11), and James Slade (10). The Seawolves also made more free throws (23) than Dominican attempted (21).

As a team, Dominican shot 57.7 percent (30-of-52) for the game and went 73.1 percent (19-of-26) in the second half to climb back into the game. Hayes led the charge for Dominican with a season-high 20 points and four three-pointers. Armstrong recorded a career-high 18 points. Taplin scored 11 points and reeled in a team-high seven rebounds.

The Penguins head to Chico State for a pair of games in the Carl's Jr. Mac Martin Tournament. Dominican will face the No. 11 ranked Wildcats on Friday, Nov. 28 at 7:30 p.m. On Saturday, Nov. 29 Dominican faces San Francisco State at 5:30 p.m.