Box Score SAN DIEGO, Calif. — The team picked eighth in the Pacific West Conference preseason coaches poll was the first team to secure a place at the table in the PacWest Championships on Saturday, March 8. The second seeded Dominican University of California men's basketball team caught fire and left very little room for doubt in an 83-69 victory over fifth seed Hawai'i Pacific University.

"Hats off to HPU. The gave us fits inside early on and yesterday they played a heck of a game," said Dominican Head Coach Booker T. Harris. "We knew coming in that it wasn't going to be an easy game and we had to execute our game plan for 40 minutes."

In the one regular season meeting on Jan. 18, the result was a 69-67 HPU victory on Dominican's home floor. That also happens to be the only loss Dominican (22-7) suffered in the Conlan Center this season. Since that night, the Penguins have won 11 consecutive games. HPU (15-13) did it without All-PacWest First Team selection Justin Long and on Friday, Dominican did it without All-PacWest First Team selection Devin Golston, who they've been without since the senior forward suffered a knee injury on Feb. 5.

The Penguins also had to get the job done with senior center Connor Haysbert in early foul trouble. Haysbert headed to the bench at the 14-minute mark after picking up two quick fouls in the span of a minute and wouldn't see the floor again until the second half. That left Josh Ramirez and Karl Ohrner to battle inside with Farbod Farman. They limited the HPU center to six points in the first half and with Haysbert back in the mix Farman finished with eight points and eight rebounds, just a night after going for 19 and 17.

While the big men got it done defensively, it was the Dominican guards who powered the offense. In the first half, Myles Carrillo went a perfect 4-of-4 from deep and led all players with 12 at intermission. The Penguins finished the half on a nine-point run, capped by a tip-in by Josh Ramirez that beat the buzzer and sent Dominican into the locker room with the momentum and a 42-29 lead.

With Haysbert back in the mix, the Penguins picked up where they left off and scored the first nine points of the second half. A Dominique Taplin slam dunk punctuated the Penguins' 18-0 run and gave them a 22-point lead with 17 minutes to play. From there, the Penguins maintained the lead, though it dwindled towards the end with the majority of Dominican's starters resting on the bench.

By the time the buzzer sounded, Carrillo still led all players with 24 points and nine assists. He went 6-of-7 from behind the three-point line and his six makes from deep were a career best. Taplin added 20 points and six rebounds, Matt Hayes scored 12 points, and Christopher Schwartz-Edmisten added 10 points to put four Penguins in double digits. Ramirez had his best performance of the season with nine points and six rebounds, both career-highs.

Four HPU players also reached double digits. Long and Leif Rodney each scored 15 points with Rodney leading all players on the glass with nine.

The No. 8 regionally-ranked Penguins will now face Chaminade in the PacWest Championships. A night after upsetting BYU-Hawaii 90-85, the Silverswords stunned top-seeded and No. 11 nationally-ranked California Baptist 80-72 in Friday's semifinal game. Chaminade and Dominican split their two regular season decisions with both teams winning on their own floor. The winner of the championship game will receive the conference's automatic berth to the NCAA Division II West Regional. Tipoff is slated for 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 8 at Point Loma in San Diego, Calif.