SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – Senior forward Cedric Thomas and sophomore forward Christian Futch each notched double-doubles but it was not enough as Dominican men's basketball fell 83-78 Saturday to Fresno Pacific University at the Conlan Center. 

Futch helped the Penguins (7-18, 3-16 PacWest) keep within striking distance down the stretch with 17 points, 10 rebounds and three assists. Thomas was a force early on finishing with 16 points and 12 rebounds. 

The Sunbirds (11-13, 8-11 PacWest) were led by Adrian Antunez's 24 points on 10-for-12 shooting from the field. Aamondae Coleman shot 50 percent from the field and capped off the night with 11 points and five rebounds. 

Dominican and FPU started out in a defensive slugfest as both teams looked to gain a multi-possession lead. Futch beat his defender down the lane on a fast break and dished it off to Thomas under the basket to cut FPU's lead to 25-23 with 7:45 left the half. Thomas then kicked the ball out to Xavier Williams who knocked down a 3-pointer to give Dominican back the lead following the media timeout. After the teams traded baskets for several minutes, Kevin Howland and Jake Straughan capped off an 8-2 run by the Sunbirds with back-to-back 3-pointers to force a timeout and build a 44-37 lead. Dominican chipped away at the lead, and Harper fed Futch in the block for a hook shot to cut the deficit to 45-41 going into the break. 

FPU didn't skip a beat coming out of the half as it extended the lead back to eight on a fastbreak dunk from Coleman with 17:55 on the clock. The Penguins seemed to regain some steam when Chris Williams lobbed it from the right wing to Futch for a layup, but FPU quickly countered on the other end of the court as A.J. Kirby drew a foul for an old-fashioned 3-point play to make it 53-46 with 15 minutes remaining. 

Kirby kept the momentum in on the Sunbirds' end, losing his defender in the lane on a fake pass, before sinking an open floater to extend the lead to 67-59. The Penguins would not go down so easily and Williams capped off a 10-4 run with a no-look pass to Sam Averbuck for a corner 3 to force a Fresno Pacific timeout with Dominican trailing 71-69 with 3:16 left in the game.

The Sunbirds capitalized on some Penguin miscues, as it quickly went on a 7-point run out of the timeout as Toby Christensen hit a 3-pointer from the corner to extend the lead to 78-69, forcing a Dominican timeout with 56.9 seconds remaining. The Penguins made things interesting in the last minute of the game, as C. Williams and J. Williams combined or three 3-pointers in the closing seconds, but they were unable to get any closer than four. 

The Penguins will celebrate Senior Night on Saturday when they face Holy Names University back in the Conlan Center at 7:30 p.m. PST. Live video and stats will be available online.