SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — The Dominican University of California men's basketball team made big plays when it needed to and in dramatic fashion upset No. 22 Azusa Pacific 78-76 on Monday night.

The Penguins (10-8/6-5 PacWest) knocked off the PacWest's top team thanks to clutch play down the stretch. Dominican trailed as late as the four-minute mark. Ryo Tawatari drove the court and hit Matt Hayes in the left corner for a three-pointer to tie it at 68-68 with 4:08 to go. Seth Turner came up with a steal at the other end and Tawatari knocked down a jumper just inside the arc to put the Penguins up 70-68. Lydell Cardwell tied the game with 1:04 to go. Tawatari made two-of-three free throws after he was fouled on a three-point attempt and Turner knocked down both of his free throws with 1.3 seconds to play to make it a four-point game. The Penguins conceded a buzzer-beater layup from Petar Kutlesic to hang on by two.

Turner led all players with a career-high 19 points. Christopher Schwartz-Edmisten added 16 points off the bench, all which came in the first half. Dominican relied entirely on its starters to score in the second half. The Penguins received 15 points from Josh Ramirez and 11 points from Hayes. Reverend Maduakor had a team-high six rebounds that included an athletic putback tip from the left side that maintained the Penguins lead in the final minutes. Maduakor also had a heads-up play with 4.9 seconds to go. After Hayes deflected a pass into the key, Maduakor was unable to stay inbounds and instead lept and threw the basketball off of a Cougars player to give Dominican possession.

Azusa Pacific (15-4/9-2 PacWest) led the first 16 minutes of the game and led by as many as 12. Dominican took its first lead of the game with three minutes to go in the first half on a Christopher Schwartz-Edmisten three-pointer. Turner and Schwartz-Edmisten each sank another three and Matt Hayes hit a jumper that sent the Penguins into halftime with a 46-39 lead. That all came despite the Cougars shooting a 61.9 percent clip in the half (13-of-21).

Dominican actually took 23 more field goal attempts (68-45), though Azusa Pacific made 14-of-28 three-point attempts. The Cougars finished the game at 57.8 percent (26-of-45) while the Penguins shot 45.6 (31-of-68) for the game. The rebounding battle was even at 30 apiece.

Kulesic was a perfect 7-of-7 from the field and led the nationally-ranked Cougars with 18 points and eight rebounds. Cardwell added 17 points, Joey Schreiber added 15 points off the bench, and Corey Langerveld scored 10 points.

Both Dominican and Azusa Pacific's coaches wore tennis shoes with their suits as part of Coaches vs. Cancer Suits and Sneakers awareness weekend, a nationwide event held each year, when coaches across the country unite for a common cause - fighting cancer! To learn more, and to donate, visit here.

On Friday, Jan. 29, Dominican will head to Holy Names in Oakland for a 7:30 p.m. contest before returning home on Monday, Feb. 1 to begin another two-game homestand. Monday is also Academic Night, where PacWest Commissioner Bob Hogue will present Dominican President Mary Marcy with the program's sixth consecutive Academic Achievement Award.

Live stats and pay-per-view video will be available at dominicanathletics.com/live with live audio during home games provided by Penguin Radio and the student broadcasters at radio.dominican.edu.