Box Score LA MIRADA, Calif. – Dominican men's basketball dropped a tight contest to Biola Monday night, falling 70-66 at the Chase Gymnasium.
 
Senior Jeremiah Gray led the Penguins (5-18, 4-12 PacWest) with 24 points and six rebounds. Senior Reverend Maduakor added 14 points and junior CJ Thomas tallied 13. Trevor Treinen led the Eagles (11-14, 5-12 PacWest) with 23 points.
 
Freshman Christian Futch helped Dominican take an early lead, putting in a layup to make it 8-5 after four minutes of action. Near the midway point in the half, Maduakor and freshman Chris Williams II hit back-to-back triples to put the Penguins ahead 14-12. A few minutes later, another 3-pointer from Williams II tied the game at 19-19. Consecutive layups from freshman Marcus Loadholt and Gray, followed by a 3-pointer from Gray, gave the Penguins a 28-22 advantage with just over three minutes remaining before halftime. Dominican took a 30-26 lead into the break.
 
The two teams went back-and-forth to start the second half as Biola refused to let the Penguins pull away. Five minutes into the half, a layup from Michael Bagatourian cut the Eagles' deficit to 38-37. Gray answered with a layup on Dominican's next possession, Thomas followed with a layup of his own and Williams II added another 3-pointer to put the Penguins ahead 47-39.
 
The Eagles continued to hang around, getting a pair of free throws from Treinen to trim Dominican's lead to 55-53 with just over six minutes left in the game. Blake Shannon followed with a jumper on Biola's next possession to tie the game and force the Penguins to take a timeout. Gray came out of the break and buried a 3-pointer as Dominican regained the lead at 58-55. Bagatourian answered with a layup and then Zach Roetcisoender leaked out in transition for another layup, this one giving Biola a 59-58 lead at the final media timeout.
 
On their first possession out of the break, the Eagles got a 3-pointer from Shannon, extending their lead to 62-58. With the Penguins trailing 63-60, Gray snatched an offensive rebound off a missed 3-pointer, putting it back in to bring Dominican back within one with just over two minutes left in the game. With less than a minute left, and the Penguins still trailing by a point, Gray missed a layup in transition but again followed it up, laying it in to give Dominican a 66-65 advantage with 49 seconds left. On Biola's next possession, Bagatourian caught a pass in the paint and drew a foul going up. He hit both free throws as the Eagles seesawed back in front at 67-66, leading to the Penguins taking a timeout with 34 seconds remaining.
 
Out of the break, Gray came off a screen but his 3-point attempt was off and rebounded by Biola's Alex Talma, who was fouled. Talma went to the line and put in a pair, forcing Dominican to take their final timeout with 18 seconds left. On what turned out to be the Penguins' final possession, Gray got a look at a turnaround jumper on the baseline but it rimmed out and the Eagles snagged the rebound, running out the clock to secure the win.
The shooting numbers for the two teams were nearly identical, both from the field and from 3-point range. Biola's advantage came in taking care of the basketball, turning it over just six times.
 
Dominican returns to the court Friday as they host Holy Names at the Conlan Center for a 7:30 p.m. tip. Live stats and video will be available online.