FRESNO, Calif. – Justin Brown led Dominican men's basketball to a strong start but hot shooting from Fresno Pacific in the second half helped turn the tide as the Penguins fell 63-53 Friday night at the Special Events Center.

Brown led the Penguins (5-12, 2-9 PacWest) with 20 points, five rebounds and three blocks. On the other end, Jelani Watson-Gayle caught fire in the second half to finish with 24 points and five rebounds for the Sunbirds (13-4, 7-3 PacWest). The game was a tale of two halves with Dominican committing only three first half turnovers while holding Fresno Pacific to 34.6% shooting and 18.2% from behind the arc. In the second half the Penguins committed 12 turnovers and the Sunbirds hit 58.3% from the field and 63.6% from distance.

"I thought we did a great job in the first half of controlling the game on both ends," head coach Justin Argenal said. "We held them to 21 points and played through the pivot to control the tempo. In the second half, we came out slow and they took advantage. [Watson-Gayle] had a great night and hit timely shots down the stretch for them. We battled, but not enough to overcome adversity on the road."

The game started in a physical battle between the two teams as Connor McClean provided a spark for Dominican as he cut down the lane for two to spark a run. Adam Parker followed up with a nice hook shot and the 6-0 run pushed the Penguins ahead 10-4 six minutes into the game. AJ Kirby helped FPU get right back into the game as he knocked down a midrange jumper before threading a pass to Alex Ferguson for a layup to cut the lead to two briefly, but Dominican collected two offensive boards leading to a McClean layup to blunt the Sunbird momentum. 

Brown used his height advantage down low, rising above his defenders on a pair of hook shots to bracket a Michael Diaz pull-up 3-pointer that pushed the Dominican lead to 21-12 with seven minutes remaining. FPU struggled to cut into the lead but they chipped away until Garret Cook knocked down a corner three to cut the lead to four. 

Brown countered right away hitting yet another hook shot before Anthony Dennis fought through contact for two more to double the lead. Brown pushed the lead into double digits for the first time with a layup for his 14th point of the half before dishing it down the baseline to Dennis for a layup for what would prove to be the final bucket of the half with the Penguins leading 33-21.

FPU began to knock down their 3-pointers in the opening minutes of the second half as Ryan Abbot and Watson-Gayle connected to cut the lead to five at the first media timeout. Cook then connected out of the break from the left corner and Darrin Person powered his way to a layup down low to tie the game 39-39 with 14:53 left in the game. Watson-Gayle kept the hot shooting going connecting from behind the arc again to give the Sunbirds their first lead of the game, but Terique Brown was able to answer from the right elbow to tie the game with 12 minutes remaining.

Watson-Gayle did not slow down following up a 3-pointer from Cook with two of his own to break the tie and push the lead to nine. Parker grabbed an offensive rebound and put it back in to break the Dominican scoring drought before hitting a 3-pointer from the right elbow to cut the Penguins' deficit to 55-49 with 7:30 remaining. They were unable to cut further into the lead down the stretch as both teams struggled to score in the final seven minutes of the game.

Dominican will next face Holy Names for the second time in as many weeks Sunday at 3 p.m. PST at Tobin Gymnasium.