Box Score HONOLULU – Dominican men's basketball fell in the first game of a four-game road trip 87-62 Thursday to Hawaii Pacific at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center.
 
Jeremiah Gray led the Penguins (5-15, 4-9 PacWest) with 17 points and five rebounds. Christian Futch added 13 points and eight rebounds. Niksha Federico led the Sharks (11-9, 6-6 PacWest) and all players with 29 points and nine rebounds.
 
Hawaii Pacific shot 48.5 percent from the field and 54.5 percent from behind the arc, while Dominican finished shooting 39.1 percent from the field and 22.7 percent from 3-point range.
 
The Sharks jumped ahead quickly scoring the first 12 points of the game led by Spencer Vering and Federico followed with three makes from behind the arc to push the lead to 23-2 three minutes later. Jordan Williams was able to spark some life into the Penguin offense with a layup and a 3-pointer and Gray cut the lead to 15 with a 3-pointer of his own with 10 minutes remaining.
 
Dominican continued to battle back and Futch laid it in to cut the lead to 12 on an assist from Cedric Thomas with four minutes left in the half. The Sharks responded to push the lead to 19 heading into the break.
 
The teams traded buckets for the first eight minutes of the second half, but Lorenz Gordon-Haynes helped push the lead to 31 with seven points of a 10-0 run. Gray scored four points for the Penguins in an 8-0 run that cut the lead back to 24 four minutes later, but Hawaii Pacific's lead was too much as it held on for the win.
 
Dominican will travel next to face Hawai'i Hilo on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. HST. Live stats and video will be available online.