SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – Dominican men's basketball was unable to erase a first half deficit falling 82-63 Saturday night to Azusa Pacific University in its final game of the 2018-19 season at the Felix Event Center.

Senior forward Cedric Thomas led the Penguins (8-20, 4-18 PacWest) and was the only player in double digits with 17 points and seven rebounds. Junior guard Sam Averbuck shot 50 percent from the field to finish with nine points and two assist. The Penguins weren't able to keep up with the Cougars, shooting 34.6 percent from the field and 21.7 from behind the arc. 

Darien McClain made plays all over the court for the Cougars (19-10, 16-6), recording a double-double of 11 points, 14 rebounds, five assists and a steal. Will Ferris went 7-for-13 from the field to finish 15 points, five rebounds, two assists and a steal.

The Penguins started the game on fire as Christopher Williams the third knocked down a 3-pointer and a jumper before finding Jordan Williams in transition for a fastbreak layup to jump ahead 13-3 in the first five minutes. APU slowly crept back in to the game as Terrence Becvar dished it off to Tyson Kanseyo down low for a dunk to cut it to a seven-point deficit with 11:14 left in the half. Thomas retaliated with a quick layup on the other end to extend Dominican's lead back to nine. 

The Cougars found their shooting stroke with a huge 20-3 run energized by a 3-pointer from Will Ferris, and a dunk from Selom Mawugbe to seize control of the momentum and take a 35-24 lead with 4:05 left until the break. Azusa Pacific kept its foot on the gas as Gerritt Beetstra capped off a 12-4 run with a buzzer-beating jumper to send the Cougars into the locker room leading by 46-30. 

APU extended its lead to 18 when Ben Taufahema hit a midrange jumper, but the Penguins kept fighting and kept battling to stay in the game. Lazar Djurovic came off the bench and knocked down two 3-pointers at the top of the arc for Dominican to close the gap to 54-40 with 14 minutes remaining. That would be the closest as the Penguins would get as the Cougars lead floated between 16 and 19 points until the final two minutes of the game.