Dominican University of California (8-6, 5-3) earned a 69-65 comeback victory over Holy Names (4-11, 1-6) in its first game in the Conlan Center in the new year. 

Junior Marcus McCutchen notched a game-high 24 points and eight rebounds, also adding an assisst, a block and two steals. Freshman Jaayden Bush added 15 points on 70% shooting from the field as Tyler Williams rounded out the trio of top scorers adding 10 of his own. 

Graduate student Justin Brown earned the game's first bucket via layup, but a 10-0 Holy Names run ensued to give the visitors an early advantage. Freshman PJ Volz snapped the streak with a midrange bucket that preceded a pair of baskets courtesy of sophomore Jake Blazona and junior Garrett Siebels that helped Dominican close the gap. A stretch of mini-streaks eventually helped the Hawks to a 16-point, 33-17 lead as the end of the quarter drew near with Dominican still searching for answers. Buckets on consecutive trips down the floor brought the Penguins back within 12 with Williams earning the latter but more Hawks points meant Dominican found itself again down 16. McCutchen earned a trio of late points of a successful and-1 before Volz closed the first half scoring with two seconds left on the clock as Dominican found itself heading into the locker room down 39-28. 

A Bush layup 16 ticks into the second half brought Dominican within single digits, the closest it would be over the first six minutes of the half. The deficit soon shrunk to just six after an 8-0 run with much courtesy given to a pair of McCutchen baskets that forced a Holy Names timeout with the score reading 46-40. A Hawks miss led to a Tyler Williams bucket to bring Dominican within four preceding 3-pointers from both teams. McCutchen brought his team within a single point minutes later after draining a shot from deep before each team earned buckets on their ensuing trips down the floor as the score read 57-56. 

More buckets were traded following the last media timeout with Dominican now trailing by a trio of points after a Hawks bucket that immediately preceded the media break. Brown spotted a streaking McCutchen before hooking a pass directly into his hands with McCutchen finishing the play with a thunderous two-handed slam before Volz did the same on the following trip down the floor to give Dominican a 62-61 lead. A Holy Names lane violation proved costly as Bush buried a long two-pointer moments later to put the Penguins up three before a Hawks layup cut the lead back to one. McCutchen earned a layup following a Holy Names timeout to put his team back up three before the defense showed up big with a stop on the other side of the court. Holy Names' Dale Curry found success on his 1-and-1 to set the score back to a single point differential with 8.7 seconds remaining. Blazona notched a pair of successful free throws after being fouled with 7.5 seconds remaining to set the score back to a three-point difference before an errant pass put the finishing touches on the game with Dominican earning a 68-65 comeback victory.