SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — Hawai'i Pacific University fended off a late comeback by Dominican men's basketball to secure an 80-72 win Monday night at the Conlan Center. 

The Sharks forced Dominican to drop to 0-9 on the season as they shot 45.8% from 3-point range while holding the Penguins to just 1-of-15 from beyond the arc. Ronald Blain led HPU (3-5, 1-3 PacWest) with 23 points, six rebounds, three assists and two rebounds. Jacob Foy helped the Sharks stay in control down the stretch, recording 11 points while going 3-of-6 from three, and tallying three steals. 

Lazar Djurovic led all scorers with 24 points, five rebounds and one assist. Djurovic and Jordan Williams sparked the Dominican comeback late in the second half as Williams recorded 16 points, two rebounds, two assist and two steals.

The Sharks swam to a 10-3 lead to begin the first half as Foy knocked down a 3-pointer from the wing and Tavon Tarpley drove to the rim to earn a foul and knocked down one of two free throws. Djurovic retaliated, backing down his defender in the paint and sinking a hook shot to cut the deficit to five, eight minutes into regulation. 

The teams traded buckets for most of the remainder of the half with the Shark lead alternating between five and nine points. Dominican closed out the first half by forcing HPU to turn the ball over on two consecutive possessions, but could not capitalize on the Sharks' mishaps as they trailed 36-29 heading into halftime.

HPU began the second half on a 7-2 run as Namdar capped off the run with a 3-pointer to force Dominican head coach Booker Harris to call a timeout 1:39 into the half with the Sharks holding a 44-31 lead. Following the timeout, Jordan Williams helped the Penguins bounce back by stealing a pass from Daniel Melifonwu on the perimeter and taking it coast-to-coast to cut their deficit to single digits at nine. But the Sharks didn't skip a beat as Foy hit his third 3-pointer of the game to extend Hawai'i Pacific's lead back to 47-35.

With six minutes left to go in regulation, the Penguins forced a shot -clock violation to get the stop on defense and capitalized on the HPU turnover as Djurovic backed down his defender and sank another hook shot from the paint to get back within six points. The Penguins got another defensive stop and Jordan Williams pulled up for a jumper in transition to make it a 63-59 game with 5:14 remaining. 

After HPU was able to build back a nine point lead, Jordan Williams kept the Penguins in it with several clutch shots down the stretch. Williams sunk two jumpers to bring Dominican within four points of the Sharks with the score at 72-68 with 2:05 remaining in regulation, but the Penguins were unable to get the stops needed to get any closer and the Sharks sealed the victory from the foul line.

Dominican will return to the court Thursday as they travel to Academy of Art University to take on the Urban Knights at Kezar Pavilion for a 7 p.m. PST tipoff. Live video and stats will be available online.