SAN RAFAEL, Calif.- Dominican men's basketball welcomed in the Cougars of Azusa Pacific Saturday afternoon in their second conference matchup of the season. The Penguins earned a hard-fought victory 61-58 giving them their first conference victory.

The Cougars got on the board first jumping out to a quick 4-0 lead thanks to a couple layups from Chris Gayles Jr. Jaayden Bush said that's enough as he got the Pengs first bucket of the game zigging and zagging through the APU defense for a nice driving layup. Then it was junior Darius Best's turn to score when he went coast to coast for smooth layup. Best was the offensive focal point for the
Pengs in the first half as he collected a game high 12 points to go along with three rebounds.

Dominican's defense coming off a strong outing Thursday night versus Point Loma didn't miss a beat as they made life tough for the Cougars in the first half. The Penguins defense swarmed APU anytime they had the ball, and this resulted in the Cougars coughing it up 12 times. Sargent Jeffery, Bush, and Thomas Oosterbroek all had active hands on defense swiping two steals each in the first half.

Bush had a nice first half going for eight points but more importantly he served as another scoring threat alongside Best. Bush drove to the basket hard many times picking up all his points in the paint. The duo of Best and Bush led the Pengs to their biggest lead of the half which was seven points.

Dominican came out for the second half looking to get their big men more involved. Jeffery had the first points of the second half for the Pengs when he posted his defender up and turned around for a smooth jumper. Then it was teammate Nathan Ilunga's turn as he went to work down low on the ensuing possession finishing with a layup.

Midway through the second half APU started to climb back, but junior Oosterbroek always seemed to have an answer. He would finish a hard three-point play along with timely jumpers to keep the Peng lead.

With five minutes left to play APU held a slim three-point lead but that's when Ilunga decided to show his range and hit back-to-back three-pointers. From there Dominican would not give up the lead thanks to timely jump shots from Ochoa and a couple free throws to ice the game from Bush.

The Penguins will be back in action Saturday Dec. 14^th when they travel to Jessup University.