SAN RAFAEL, Calif.— Dominican men's basketball erased a first half deficit to earn a 73-64 victory over Academy of Art University Friday night at the Conlan Center. 
 
Dominican (3-13, 3-7 PacWest) forced Academy of Art (5-12, 3-7 PacWest) to commit 18 turnovers, and the Penguins capitalized on those opportunities, earning 25 points off the Knights' miscues. The Penguins shot 55.1% from the field, including 54.5% from three-point range to earn a season sweep over Art U in PacWest play. 
 
Jordan Williams recorded 18 points, while adding two assists and two steals as the Penguins' leading scorer for the night. Coming off his best offensive performance of the season, Sam Averbuck logged a full 40 minutes of action, earning 15 points, while going 6-for-10 from the field.
 
Josh Hill shot 9-of-10 from the field, totaling 18 points and seven rebounds for the Urban Knights. Stefan Milivojevic collected 14 points, four assists and two rebounds. 
 
After trading baskets to start the game, Art U went on an 8-0 run to bring their lead to 10 as Milivojevic found Hill in the paint for a lay-up to give Academy of Art a 16-6 lead. Jaelen Ragsdale earned a reverse lay-up through traffic to kick-start a 13-3 run by the Penguins, which was capped off with a steal from Chase Anderson, and a lay-up in transition by Williams to tie the game at 19 at the midway mark of the first half. A minute and a half later, Ragsdale intercepted another pass from Kai Tease and took it all the way to the rim to give Dominican a 25-21 lead, forcing Art U Head Coach Scott Waterman to burn a timeout with 8:25 left in the first half. 
 
The Penguins and Knights traded baskets once more, until the Penguins earned a six-point advantage as Ragsdale grabbed a long offensive rebound and sank a midrange jumper to bring Dominican's lead to 35-29 over the Knights. Ragsdale continued to power the Penguins' offense, earning the next 5-of-7 points for DU, before Mateen Hirbod capped off the first half with a three-pointer from the corner taking the game into the break with Dominican holding a 43-37 lead.
 
Art U cut their deficit to four points when Milivojevic connected with Adrian Byrd-Jelinek in the corner to knock down a three-pointer, but Averbuck returned the favor on the other end, bumping the Penguins lead back to six with the score of 50-44. The Knights cut the lead to four once more with under 10 minutes remaining, but this time it was Thomas Faustka that sparked the Penguins offense by backing down his defender in the paint, earning a couple quick baskets, and making his way to the charity stripe with 5:24 left to go in regulation to extend Dominican's lead to 62-53. 
 
Academy of Art was unable to break within four of the Penguins down the stretch, and with two minutes left in regulation, Averbuck sank a three pointer in front of the Dominican bench, extending the Penguins' lead to 10 and solidifying the win for Dominican. 
 
The Penguins will look to make it two in a row on Monday as they travel to Notre Dame de Namur to take on the Argonauts at 7:30 p.m. PST. Live video and stats will be available online.