SAN FRANCISCO – Dominican men's basketball team fell 66-55 to host San Francisco State Gators on Saturday night in the final contest of the PacWest/CCAA Challenge.

Senior forward Ezra Talbert led the Penguins (1-1) with 14 points, six from behind the arc. Senior forward Cedric Thomas added 14 points of his own to go with five rebounds. Sophomore forward Christian Futch finished the game with a team-high nine rebounds. 

Ryne Williams did it all for the Gators (2-0), nearing a double-double with 16 points, nine rebounds, five blocks and three steals. Jase Wickliffe ended the night with 14 points on 3 of 6 from behind the arch and 55.6 percent from the field.

Dominican settled in after a slow start and as Sam Averbuck sparked the offense with a midrange jumper to cut Dominican's deficit to 10-6. After a defensive stop, junior point guard Ryan Hiepler hit a 3 on the other end and Thomas laid the ball in off the glass to bring the Penguins within one and 13 minutes left in the half. The Penguins kept the momentum as Averbuck sank a 3-pointer from the left wing to tie the game at 14-14. Sophomore guard Christopher Williams II knocked down a shot behind the arc of his own and Talbert nailed a jumper with eight minutes until the break to finish the 10-2 run and give Dominican the 19-14 lead. 

The Gators began a full-court press coming out of the timeout, and after R. Williams stole the ball away and finished with a dunk on the other end the Penguins lead fell to one with seven minutes remaining. Thomas and Futch connected on a pair of shots in the paint to keep Dominican in front heading into the final five minutes. 

Williams and Wickliffe hit back-to-back shots from distance, sparking an 11-point run to put the Gators back in front 29-23 as the Penguins offense cooled off. After a pair of free-throw makes by sophomore guard Jordan WIlliams, Talbert hit a 3 at the buzzer to trim the deficit to 29-28 as the teams headed into the break. 

The Gators opened the second half on an 8-3 run to extend their lead to 37-31, but Dominican answered with nine unanswered, featuring another make behind the arc from Talbert and a fastbreak layup from Thomas, to put it back in front 40-37 with a little over 13 minutes left on the clock.

The Gators regrouped and responded once again out of the timeout as Ugbaja stole the ball and passed it up to Kenny Macklin who threw it down for a dunk for a 44-40 lead. The Penguins quickly countered as J. Williams stole the ball from S.F. State's R. Williams in transition and dished it off to Talbert for a lay-up to tie the game back up at 44. With under seven minutes to go in the game, R. Williams would sink a 3 from the top of the arc and Jordan Balser followed with a left-handed lay-up to give the Gators the 54-46 lead. 

Dominican worked its way back into the game and Hiepler cut the deficit to four with a 3-pointer at the 5:06 mark, but it was the closest it would get. SFSU pushed its lead to as many as 11 down the stretch and the Penguins were unable to string together stops and makes to get back into the game.
Dominican will return home Wednesday to host Cal State Dominguez Hills at 7:30 p.m. PDT in its home opener. It will be Gold Rush Night at the Igloo, so get there early to receive your free Gold Rush T-shirt, while supplies last. Live video and stats will be available online.