FRESNO, Calif. – The Dominican University of California men's basketball team demonstrated its road resiliency once again on Saturday.
 
With a series of clutch plays down the stretch, the Penguins secured a comeback 88-86 win at Fresno Pacific.
 
Dominican trailed by six points with just 96 seconds remaining. Later with the Sunbirds clinging to an 86-84 edge and less than 10 seconds to play, the Penguins' Reverend Maduakor dropped in a layup to tie the score.
 
At the other end of the floor, FPU went 0-for-2 at the free throw line to return possession to Dominican. The visiting Penguins' squad took advantage as Ryo Tawatari sank a pair of free throws at the two-second mark to provide Dominican with the game-winning points.
 
The result moves Dominican to 7-14 overall and 6-9 in the PacWest. Meanwhile, the Sunbirds fall to 6-14 overall and 5-9 in the conference.

Four of the Penguins' players scored in double figures on Saturday. Leading that group was Maduakor, who totaled 22 points on 6-for-11 shooting. He went 8-for-8 at the free throw line. Also posting double-digit scoring totals were Jeremiah Gray with 19, Josh Ramirez with 14 and Josh Armstrong adding 11.

Free-throw shooting was key in the final seconds and throughout the entire game. Dominican outshot Fresno Pacific in that category, 75 percent to 55.6 percent. Beyond Maduakor's team-high eight free throws converted, Armstrong sank five of the Penguin's successful attempts.

Dominican fell behind by double digits before the midway point in the first half on Saturday. A free throw from Tawatari in the final seconds of the first half brought the intermission score to 45-36 in favor of the host FPU squad.

The Sunbirds kept a decent margin through the first 10 minutes of the second half and then the Penguins started to make their move while cutting into the lead. Gray put down a dunk at the 7:25 mark and about one minute later, Armstrong added two free throws to make it a three-point game.

With 4:43 remaining, Maduakor hit a three-pointer to tie the score. The Sunbirds recaptured the lead and held it until the layup from Maduakor evened the score in the final seconds. From there, the Penguins' clutch performances took over and Dominican finished the win.

The Penguins will return to action on Wednesday with a 7:30 p.m. road game at Holy Names.