SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – Dominican men's basketball returned home to host Fresno Pacific Thursday night after their two-game road trip in southern California last week. This win pushes Dominican in front of FPU in the PacWest standings as both teams fight for a spot in the conference tournament coming up in March.

Fresh off their 86 to 77 victory against APU, the Penguins came out strong versus the Sunbirds. Senior leader Garrett Siebels got things started with a driving lay-up then later hit a step back three. Fellow senior Marcus McCutchen led the way for Dominican going for a game-high eight points in the first half.

The Penguins as a team had great overall numbers in the first half against FPU. Five players posted five points or more in the first half, talk about a balanced offense attack. Nathan Ilunga had an efficient half going 3 for 5 from the field for six points and dishing out two assists.

Not only was Dominican putting up numbers on offense they were also beating the Sunbirds in the hustle plays early on. The Penguins out rebounded FPU in the first half while their defense forced the Sunbirds into six turnovers.

Dominican held a four-point lead going into halftime, but they didn't let off the pedal when both teams came out for the second half. McCutchen found Ilunga with a beautiful dish down low to open the scoring. Then McCutchen started to heat up finding his sweet spots in the mid-range. The Merced native finished the night with a game-high 19 points while grabbing seven boards.  

Dale Currie was second in scoring behind McCutchen posting 16 points while hitting two long balls in the second half. Juniors Ilunga and Brendon Johnson each dropped 12 points while combining for 13 rebounds. Ilunga put an exclamation mark to the Penguins victory when he slammed home a breakaway dunk with one minute left in the game.

Dominican will be back in action Saturday Feb.10^th at 3:30 as they host Westmont College.