HONOLULU — The Dominican University of California men's basketball team suffered its first PacWest Conference loss of the season on Thursday, 79-66, at Hawai'i Pacific.

The first matchup of the three-game trip was likely the hardest for the Penguins (3-6/2-1 PacWest), who stacked up evenly across the stat sheet except for one glaring area. Dominican was outrebounded 42-24 by the unbeaten Sharks (9-0/3-0 PacWest), who received votes in the most recent NCAA Division II men's basketball poll.

Jeremiah Gray scored a game-high 21 points with five three-pointers and and Quentin Mendoza added 13 points with three three-pointers but no other Penguin reached double digits. All ten Sharks who stepped onto the court scored with four players in double digits. Chauncey Orr scored a team-high 15 points on 6-of-10 shooting for the Sharks.

In the first four minutes, Dominican raced out to a 10-2 lead thanks to seven quick points from Gray. Gray's three-pointer at the 12-minute mark put the Penguins up by 14 but the tides turned after that. In the next three minutes, HPU shaved the lead to four and tied the game 23-23 with 5:59 to go in the half on Jonothan Janssen's transition layup. HPU closed the half out on a 13-5 run and led 36-28 at the break.

The deficit grew to 19 with 12:21 to go in the second half but the Penguins cut the lead to six with five minutes to go. Dominican still trailed by six with under two minutes to play but the Sharks finished the game on a 10-3 run to pull away.

Dominican looks to bounce back on Saturday, Dec. 17 at Chaminade (5-5/2-2 PacWest), then wraps up the three-game tour at Hawai'i Hilo (3-5/2-2 PacWest) on Monday, Dec. 19. Tipoff for both games is slated for 9:30 p.m. Pacific.