HONOLULU – Dominican men's basketball stayed within striking distance throughout the game but ultimately fell to Chaminade 80-75 Friday night at McCabe Gymnasium.

Christian Futch and Cedric Thomas provided consistency inside the paint for the Penguins (7-16, 3-14 PacWest) each finishing with 17 points and nine rebounds. Chris Williams II made several clutch 3-pointers on his way to adding 15 points. 

Erik Scheive led all scorers with a double-double of 27 points and 14 rebounds, while finishing 10 for 17 from the field for the Silverswords (17-4, 11-4 PacWest). Tyler Cartaino added an 8-for-12 performance from the field to add 22 points and five rebounds. 

Chaminade jumped to an 8-0 lead to begin regulation as Grant Dressler found an open Scheive for two, and hit a jumper of his own in the paint on the next possession and force a Penguin timeout less than two minutes into the game. The Penguins reeled off nine straight to take the lead as Futch muscled his way for an offensive rebound and putback with 15:34 left in the half to cap the run. 

The Silverswords slowly built back the 8-point advantage over the next seven minutes as Andre Arissol forced a turnover and found Cartaino for the transition layup and Scheive followed knocking down a pair of free throws to make it 28-20. Lazar Djurovic capped a 5-0 Dominican run with a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to three with 6:21 to go until the break. Chaminade ended the half on 12-4 run as Tyler Cartaino connected with Erik Sheive for a 3-pointer before he went coast-to-coast for a transition layup to take a 40-29 lead into the locker room.

The Penguins chipped away at the deficit behind the play of Thomas and Futch to start the second half, as they combined for 10 of Dominican's 17 points of the half. Thomas capped the sequence with a jumper inside the paint to close the gap to 48-46 with 14:05 left on the clock. 

Schieve helped Chaminade extend its lead back to seven as he drove into the paint for a layup three minutes later. Ezra Talbert threw down a dunk to bring the Penguins within two to cap another 5-0 run as they continued to keep pace with the high-scoring Silverswords. Dominican kept the momentum rolling as Talbert knocked down a midrange jumper to make it 57-56 in favor of Chaminade with 7:16 remaining. 

Schieve continued to be a force for the Silverswords and they regained an 11-point lead with 2:43 left on the clock. The lead wasn't enough to deter the Penguins down the stretch, as Williams knocked down two straight 3-pointers to get back within three with 17 seconds left in regulation. Dominican fouled Roman Young and he missed his first free throw to leave the door open for a comeback, but a turnover with under 10 seconds remaining put the game out of reach for the Penguins.

Dominican will travel to University of Hawai'i at Hilo on Sunday to take on the Vulcans at 7:30 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time to try to return to the win column before returning home. Live video stats will be available online.