SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – Dominican men's basketball held on late to hand Cal State East Bay its first loss of the season, 56-53 at the Conlan Center on Tuesday Night. 

Junior guard Sam Averbuck was consistent under pressure, scoring 16 points on 53.8 percent shooting. Senior forward Cedric Thomas and sophomore center Christian Futch added 10 points each, while Thomas grabbed eight rebounds and Futch finished with 6 rebounds.

Ant Navarrete finished the night as the Pioneer's leading scorer with 20, shooting 9 for 13 from the field, and collecting five rebounds. 

The result of the game came down to the wire as Dominican scored the last four points of the game, coming out victorious over the Pioneers. Christopher Williams II snuck a pass down low to Futch for the lay-up to even the score at 53. Sophomore point guard Jordan Williams then drew a charge to get the ball back and drew a foul on the other side of the court. Williams knocked down one of his two attempts to give the lead back to the Penguins. After another stop on the defensive end, Williams got a ball down low, spun around his defender and laid a reverse layup in off the glass to give Dominican the 56-53 lead with 21 seconds remaining. The Pioneers had two chances to tie, but Navarette's 3-point attempts were no good and Dominican came out with the lead. 

Dominican got off to strong start in the first half, holding the lead for most of the period. With 13 minutes until half, Averbuck hit a 3 to give Dominican a 14-6 lead, but CSUEB retaliated with a 6-0 run, capped off by a Justin Vigil lay-up through the seams to cut Dominican's lead to two with under 10 minutes remaining. The two-point deficit would be as close as the Pioneers would come to the Penguins in the first half. 

Near the two-minute mark, junior forward Lazar Djurovic came off the bench to give the Penguins a spark going into the half, backing down his defender and sinking a hook shot to give Dominican the 32-24 advantage heading into the locker room. 

The Pioneers went on a 10-2 run to begin the first half, tying the game 34-34 as Navarrete drove through the lane to roll one in for two. The Pioneer's hopes were cut short once more as the Penguins answered with an 8-2 run sparked when Futch beat his defender down low for a layup to give the Penguins a 44-37 advantage. The tides turned back to CSUEB as Dominican was plagued by turnovers, granting the Navarrete opportunities to hit two back-to-back jumpers to take their first lead of the game at 51-46 with 6:12 to go in regulation.

The Penguins will take on UC Merced on Saturday at 4 p.m. PDT in a home exhibition at the Conlan Center. Live video and stats will be available online.