SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – Hawai'i Pacific University used a 9-2 run to open the game and never trailed, posting a wire-to-wire 80-72 PacWest Conference victory at Dominican (Calif.) on Monday night in the Conlan Center.
 
The Sharks (3-5, 1-3) picked up their first conference win of the season, while the Penguins (0-9, 0-3) remained winless on the season.
 
Senior Ronald Blain of McDonough, Ga./Union Grove powered the HPU attack with a season-high 23 points along with six rebounds. Sophomore Jacob Foy of Newcastle, Australia/St. Francis Xavier collected 11 points with three steals, with senior Neema Namdar of Sandy, Utah/Alta also scored 11. Junior Tavon Tarpley of McLean, Va./Langley chipped in 10 points with six rebounds.
 
 Dominican got 24 points and five rebounds from Lazar Djurovic, while Jordan Williams contributed 16 points. Jaelen Ragsdale posted 12 points while Thomas Faustka came off the bench with 10 points and four boards.
 
The Sharks shot a season-high 55.1 percent (27-of-49) from the floor, including 11-of-24 (46 percent) from the 3-point arc. HPU made 15-of-21 (71 percent) from the foul line. DUC connected on 46 percent (28-of-61) of its shots from the field, but made only 1-of-15 (6.7 percent) from the arc. The Penguins hit 15-of-20 (75 percent) from the charity stripe. The Sharks outrebounded the Penguins 34-29, but suffered 14 turnovers to DUC's 11.
 
The Sharks opened with a layup from Blain and used it for a 9-2 run following a Foy 3-pointer with 14:37 remaining in the half. The Sharks expanded their lead to nine on a triple by Tarpley, and held that advantage three more times through the half before taking a seven-point 36-29 lead into the locker room at the half.
 
HPU used a 13-6 run to open the second half, going up 49-35 with 15:31 left on a Blain jumper. The Penguins wouldn't relent and started chipping away at the HPU advantage, then using a 6-0 run to cut the lead to six at 57-51 with 8:49 to go. HPU rebuilt its lead to 10 on a 3-pointer from freshman Ryan Godges of Santa Barbara, Calif./San Marcos only to have DUC make another stab at the Sharks advantage.
 
Blain pushed the Sharks lead to nine with three minutes to go before Dominican collected a pair of layups with a free throw to cut HPU's lead to 70-66 with 2:34 remaining. The teams traded scores over the next two minutes and HPU held a narrow four-point 76-72 lead with 41 seconds left after a pair of Djurovic free throws. The Penguins needed to foul to get the ball back and HPU was nearly perfect down the stretch, making four-of-five free throws as Blain and junior David Rowlands of Dayton, Ohio/Moorpark pushed the Sharks advantage back to eight for the final of 80-72.
 
The Sharks return home and to play in the Hoops In Hawai'i D2 Power Invitational this weekend at the Hawai'i Convention Center. HPU meets with Arkansas-Monticello on Friday at 1:15 p.m., then faces Simon Fraser at 5:45 p.m. on Saturday.