SAN RAFAEL, Calif.- Dominican men's basketball hosted the Sunbirds of Fresno Pacific Thursday night in what was dubbed the "white-out" game inside the Igloo. The Pengs would feed off the home support keeping it close throughout the game, but it was the Sunbirds who came out on top winning 65-58.

Junior Darius Best got the Penguins on the board when he flashed his smooth looking jumper hitting nothing but net. The Sunbirds came out firing from deep hitting two three-pointers within the first three minutes. Fellow junior Jorge Ochoa had enough of Fresno Pacific's long-range shots and decided he could do the same thing. The Los Angeles native dropped back-to-back threes of his own to kick-start the Pengs offense.

Midway through the first the Sunbirds would go on a run of their own, a 12-point run. Hugo Gonzalez- Garcia capped off the big run with a step-back three. Defense gets a team back into it, and once the Pengs clamped up the defense, the offense started to get in a groove. DM Sanders who has drew the start the last couple of games zigged past the Sunbirds defense for a sweet driving lay-up six minutes before halftime. After a turnover forced by the Pengs defense on the other end, Sanders stayed hot with a deep three-pointer off an assist from teammate Best. Sanders and Ochoa led the Penguins offense in the first half, but they found themselves trailing by nine heading into the lockers for halftime.

When both teams came out for the second half, Dominican looked like a team that had regrouped and knew what they had to do which was establish a presence down low. Redshirt sophomore Sargent Jeffery was that driving force for the Pengs coming out and scoring on five straight possessions. The Las Vegas native showed off his arsenal of low post moves along with strong finishing lay-ups.

Fellow teammates Thomas Oosterbroek and Best followed Jeffery's lead as they found success in the paint cutting the Sunbirds lead to five with six minutes left in the game. In crunch time the Pengs would go back to what was working all game and that was the duo of Best and Jeffery. Best had a nice floating lay-up down the stretch with Jeffery forcing the defense to send him to the line where he collected a couple of points. Jeffery would finish with a team high 15 points while Best was right behind him collecting 14.

Dominican will now embark on their Hawaii road-trip next week squaring off against Chaminade on Jan. 30^th.