SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – Dominican men's basketball fell short in its second-half comeback 75-72 Tuesday night against Hawaii Pacific at the Conlan Center.

"Regardless of the adversity we faced we just kept going," graduate guard Zamaria Odom said. "We were down 13 in the first half and we came back from that; we were down seven with two minutes left and we came back from that. To see guys make plays, to see guys who don't normally get minutes come out and get big minutes and put in a team effort to keep us in the game makes me proud of our team. Everyone went out there and tried to give their best effort."

Odom scored 21 points off the bench while fellow graduate transfer Anthony Dennis poured in 22 points and grabbed four rebounds. Chase Anderson came off the bench to add 15 points for the Penguins but they were unable to make up for the loss of center Justin Brown who went out with a shoulder injury early in the first half.

"We just continued to fight as a team and play for one another [after losing Justin Brown to a first-half injury]," Dennis said. "I know we are down a few men here late in the season so we have to step up and take roles we're not used to."

The 3-pointers fell early for the Sharks as Rodney Hounshell and Jackson Young connected on a pair with Kordell Ng driving for a layup to push their lead to 12-4 in the first seven minutes of the game. The Sharks continued to slowly add to their lead as Young and Topham hit from distance before Trey Miller laid it in for a 13-point lead near the midway point of the half. 

Dennis began to find his rhythm as he grabbed an offensive board and scored on the putback before taking a defensive rebound coast-to-coast for a transition layup during a 12-3 run that cut the HPU lead to 30-27 with four minutes until the break. The Penguins tied the game at 31 moments later following a jumper from Adam Parker and two makes from the charity stripe by Odom. Young was fouled on a 3-point attempt and sank all three free throws to put the Sharks back on top with 10 seconds left but Odom found Dennis in the corner to answer before the buzzer to tie the game at 36 heading into the locker room.

Odom gave Dominican its first lead of the game with the first basket of the second half and Jake Blazona found Dennis all alone on an inbounds play on the next trip down the floor to extend the lead to 40-36. Jakob Kimura went on a personal 9-0 run to give the Sharks back the lead but Anderson and Odom hit back-to-back 3-pointers to make it 46-45 in favor of the Penguins with 15 minutes left on the clock.

The seesaw battle continued for several minutes until Kimura again hit back-to-back shots from behind the arc before a layup from Miller pushed HPU ahead by seven with seven minutes remaining in the game. The Sharks held that advantage for the next five minutes when Dennis bullied his way inside for two more before Troy Murphy Jr. got a steal in the backcourt and a pair of free throws from Odom cut the deficit to 70-67 with 1:35 left to play. Odom would then tie the game with a 3-pointer with 49 seconds remaining, but Elijah Martinez answered with one of his own on the other end to make it 75-72 with 12 seconds remaining. The Penguins had two more shots to tie in the closing seconds but both shots were off target.

Dominican will return to the court Sunday to take on the University of Hawai'i at Hilo at 3 p.m. PST at the Conlan Center.