SAN DIEGO – Dominican men's basketball fell 72-60 Wednesday night to Point Loma in its first game of a two-game road trip to Southern California.

"Point Loma is a very big and skilled team," head coach Justin Argenal said. "We were neck-and-neck in the first half but couldn't sustain it down the stretch. They did a good job of spreading us out on the defensive end. I was proud of our fight, but in order to win on the road we are going to need to shoot better from the field."

Zamaria Odom led the way for the Penguins (7-15, 3-11 PacWest) with 17 points off the bench. Adam Parker added 14 points and eight rebounds while Jake Blazona finished with a career-high 12 points for Dominican. Kaden Anderson had a 17 point and 10 rebound double-double for the Sea Lions (15-8, 11-4 PacWest) to lead four players in double figures.

The Sea Lions put together an early 7-0 run capped when Coby Barnes capitalized on a second chance opportunity by knocking down a 3-pointer at the top of the key to take the 11-5 lead. Parker and Blazona provided the offense for the Penguins in a 9-3 run in response as Blazona did his work from midrange and Parker knocked down a 3-pointer from the left corner during the run to tie the game at 14 with 12 minutes until the half.

Justin Brown then threaded a perfect bounce pass between two defenders to a cutting Anthony Dennis for an easy layup to spark another run. Odom added a pair of acrobatic layups, the last surrounded by three defenders to cap the 6-point run that gave Dominican a 24-19 lead at the under eight media timeout. 

PLNU responded with six unanswered of their own as they worked their way to the free-throw line before Anderson whipped a foul-court pass to Myles Franklin for a transition layup to retake the lead. The teams traded buckets down the stretch until Brian Goracke nailed a deep three from the right-wing and Hugh Baxter tipped an offensive rebound in before the half expired to give the Sea Lions the 37-33 lead.

Brock Mackenzie knocked down a 3-pointer out of the break to increase the PLNU lead and a Baxter layup capped the 10-0 run to push the lead to nine. Parker rose above his defender and knocked down a 3-pointer on the next possession before Brown worked his way down low for a hook shot to cut the deficit to 42-38 with 17 minutes remaining.

Ben Okhotin began to heat up from behind the arc as he knocked down a pair of 3-pointers to end another Sea Lion run that pushed the lead into double digits at 54-42 at the 13-minute mark. The remainder of the game saw small runs by each team but PLNU held on to its double-digit lead the rest of the way.

Dominican will conclude its trip Friday against Azusa Pacific at 7:30 p.m. at the Felix Event Center.