TURLOCK — The final 10 minutes of Satuday night's home opener pretty much went the Dominican Penguins way as host Stanislaus State dropped a 70-66 decision at the Ed & Bertha Fitzpatrick Arena.
Dominican first used a 13-2 run to erase a 10-point Stan State advantage to take a lead, then used a 9-5 run in the final two-plus minutes to edge the Warriors. Both teams evened their records with Stanislaus at 1-1 and Dominican at 2-2 after the contest.
Alek Carlson netted a career-high 16 points — which included 4-for-8 shooting from the 3-point line — to lead Stanislaus. The senior also had four rebounds, two assists and a steal in one of his more solid all-around games.
Christian Bayne and
Kyi Thomas each chipped in 10 points and
Richard Medina scored nine points on three treys.
Kyle Gouveia led Stan State with nine rebounds. He also had two blocked shots.
Vondel Faniel had eight points and five rebounds in 15 minutes of play.
The Warriors were 10 for 10 from the foul line and made eight three-pointers on the night.
The trio of offensive weapons employed by the Penguins were at their best again with Josh Ramirez leading with 21 points. Matt Hayes scored 17 and Chris Schwartz-Edmisten had 15 points. Ramirez also had seven rebounds, three blocks and two steals and made all six of his free throw attempts.
Stan State led by 10 points, 55-45, at 10:03 left to play on back-to-back three-pointers by Carlson and
Stephen Evans. However, Hayes reponded with one of his triples to start a 7-0 Dominican run. A pair of Hayes free throws at 5:22 eventually gave the Penguins a lead after another 6-0 run.
After Evans made a layup at 5:06 remaining, the Warriors went the next four minutes and 50 seconds without a field goal to allow the Penguins to complete their comeback. Carlson finally nail another three-pointer with 16 seconds left to make it 69-66, but by then it was a little too late.
Post-short Thanksgiving break, the Warriors will travel a little south to Fresno to take on Fresno Pacific on Saturday, Nov. 18 at 7 p.m.
