SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — The Dominican University of California men's basketball team played even with No. 5 Cal Baptist most of the night, but lost touch late en route to an eventual 86-72 loss Saturday night.
 
Josh Ramirez and Reverend Maduakor combined to score Dominican's first 15 points in a back-and-forth battle early. In a 90-second span, each player hit desperation three-pointers as the shot clock buzzer sounded.
 
With seven minutes remaining in the half and the score knotted at 24 all, Maduakor snagged an offensive rebound and passed to the slashing Jeremiah Gray who soared in the middle of the lane, switched the ball from his right to left hand in mid-air, and finished with contact to put the Penguins back in front. A Ryo Tawatari breakaway layup followed to give the Penguins their biggest lead of the game at 28-24. However, a pair of timely threes from CBU's Jordan Heading — including a rainbow to beat the halftime buzzer off a broken play — gave the Lancers a 40-35 lead at the break.
 
Cal Baptist (17-1/9-1 PacWest) doubled their lead in the first minute of the second half before a Penguin flurry set the Igloo ablaze during a 12-0 run, capped by a Gray three-pointer off a Lancer turnover.
 
The largest home crowd of the year in the Conlan Center was making its presence known until PacWest Conference leading scorer Michael Smith tipped-in an offensive rebound to tie the game 47-47. From the fifteen minute mark to the ten minute mark, the reigning PacWest Player of the Year scored nine straight points for Cal Baptist and extended the Lancer lead to six.
 
The Penguins (5-13/4-8 PacWest) could never get closer than six down the stretch as they resorted to a fouling strategy in a game that was much closer than the final score indicates.
 
Maduakor — who had his career-high of 18 points last year at Cal Baptist — finished the night with a season-high 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting. Gray matched his season-average with 17 points. Josh Armstrong added 10 points and eight rebounds in 30 solid minutes, while Ramirez finished with 14 points on the night. Smith ended the night with a game-high 30 points for the Lancers.
 
Dominican now hits the road to visit Concordia Irvine on Thursday, January 26, before playing a Saturday matinee at Azusa Pacific on January 28.