FRENO, Calif.- Dominican men's basketball traveled to Fresno Pacific Wednesday night for a PacWest clash against the Sunbirds. The Penguins were able to make it a game within the last five minutes of play, but the Sunbirds were able to squeak out an 89-86 victory.

Junior Darius Best led all scorers in this one dropping 25 points while swiping a couple of steals. The North Carolina native has been hot of late as this is his second consecutive game scoring 20-plus points. Best gave the Sunbirds defense fits all night, and they found out the only way to stop him was to foul him. He went a game high 10 for 13 from the charity stripe while also catching the defense napping from deep collecting nine points from behind the arc.

Teammates Jaayden Bush and Nathan Ilunga were right behind Best in the scoresheet posting 19 and 13 points on the night. The duo of Bush and Ilunga had their way down low against Fresno Pacific as they were a huge factor of Dominican's 40 points from inside the paint. They also made their mark on the defensive side of the ball with Bush collecting a team high four steals while Ilunga swatted away two blocks. Redshirt junior DM Sanders finished the night with an effective 12 points off the bench while going an efficient 7 for 8 from the line.

With five minutes left in the game, the Pengs found themselves down 10. A three-pointer from Bush and Dominican was off and running trying to erase the double-digit deficit. A nice lay-up from Ilunga and stout defense down the stretch made the Sunbirds start sweating. Best, like he had done all night, forced his way to the free throw line for a pair of buckets then on the ensuing offensive possession splashed a long range shot to cut the deficit to one-point with two minutes left.

Fresno Pacific then went on a run of their own to grab a seven-point lead with 19 seconds left, but it wasn't over. Sanders hit a quick three and then the Pengs fouled quickly. When they got the ball back, Bush was fouled. He hit one free throw, and smartly clanked it off the rim purposely missing so that the Penguins could try to get the rebound. After a quick tussle for the ball and a review, the ball stayed with Dominican down by three with two seconds left. After a timeout, the ball found Sanders off the inbound play and he narrowly missed the trey at the horn.

Dominican will be back home this Saturday at 3:30 p.m. to face Jessup University.