IRVINE, Calif. – A five-minute scoring drought proved the difference as Dominican men's basketball fell 70-60 Monday afternoon to Concordia University Irvine at CU Arena.

Freshman guard Jorden Josephs filled up the stat sheet for the Penguins (4-8, 1-4 PacWest) with 20 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals. Graduate guard Zamaria Odom chipped in 16 points while graduate center Justin Brown rounded out the double-figure scorers with 10 in the game. Matt Weyland led a proficient 3-point attack for the Eagles (6-5, 3-2 PacWest) as he knocked down five of his team's 12 makes from behind the arc to finish with 15 points.

"I thought we came out and competed on both sides of the ball," head coach Justin Argenal said. "We did a good job of executing our game plan in the first half with the exception of letting Weyland get loose from beyond the arc. CUI came out and played more physical in the second half and a few lapses led to turnovers and easy baskets that had us playing from behind. When you're on the road you need to do the little things in order to have success. We were unable to do so tonight."

Josephs helped Dominican get out to a strong start as he threw a ball over the top to Brown for a layup to open the scoring then added four points and two steals in the first four minutes as Dominican led 6-2 at the first media timeout. The Eagles countered with some defense of their own hitting a 3-pointer out of the timeout before converting a pair of turnovers into four points to take the 9-6 lead. Josephs found Brown again cutting to the hoop for a layup to blunt the momentum and Brown followed with a block on the other end resulting in a pair of free throws for Odom to give the Penguins back the lead with 12 minutes remaining.

Dominican rode its newfound momentum as Josephs caught the Eagles out of rotation and drove untouched to the hoop for a two-handed slam before a steal on the other end that turned into a corner 3-pointer by freshman point guard Jake Blazona to make it 22-13 with 5:33 left in the half. Weyland hit back-to-back 3-pointers for CUI in response as they closed the gap to three at the four-minute mark. Anthony Dennis and Josephs crashed the glass for four quick second chance points, but the Eagles continued to hit from behind the arc to keep the game close as the Penguins took a 30-27 lead into the locker room.

CUI continued its relentless long-distance attack in the second half as Cameron Fini hit a 3-pointer from the top of the arc to take the 37-34 lead with 16:25 left on the clock. Odom began to heat up from behind the arc for the Penguins as he knocked down a pair to keep the game close, but Dominican's offense hit a cold spell and a 7-0 run gave CUI the 49-40 lead with nine minutes remaining. The Penguins were able to close within six after Balzona found Josephs cutting to the rim for another monster slam, but they were unable to get any closer done the stretch as the Eagles continued to counter from beyond the arc to hold their lead.

Dominican heads out to its holiday break before returning to the court New Year's Day to take on Azusa Pacific at 3 p.m. PST at the Conlan Center.