HONOLULU – Senior Darnell Bettis' steal and layup with 14 minutes to play gave Hawai'i Pacific University a lead it wouldn't relinquish on the way to a 64-57 PacWest Conference victory Wednesday night at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center.
 
The Sharks (6-15, 3-13) overcame a 10-point first half deficit as they snapped a four-game losing streak and avenged a double-overtime loss on Jan. 2. The Penguins (7-15, 3-13) cut an 11-point HPU lead in the last three minutes to just four before the Sharks finished with the seven-point win.
 
Junior Ronald Blain of McDonough, Ga./Union Grove paced the Sharks with 14 points to go with four rebounds. Bettis, a senior from Los Angeles/University, just missed a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds with two steals. Senior Jonathan Janssen of Noosa Heads, Australia/Mountain State scored 10 points with six boards. Junior Daniel Melifonwu of San Diego/Lincoln helped the defense with four blocked shots to go with seven rebounds and four points. Junior Scott Ulaneo of Rome, Italy/St. George's International had three steals with seven boards and seven points.
 
Dominican was led by Sam Averbuck with 15 points and five rebounds, as Ezra Talbert scored 14 with two steals. Jordan Williams collected 13 points with six assists and three steals.
 
The Sharks hit 43 percent (25-of-58) of their shot from the field, including 6-of-20 (30 percent) from the 3-point arc.  HPU connected on 8-of-12 free throws (67 percent). Dominican shot 41 percent from the floor (23-of-56), including 7-of-19 (37 percent) from the arc. DUC made 4-of-6 (67 percent) of its foul shots. HPU dominated the boards 41-30, but suffered 13 turnovers to the Penguins 12.
 
The Sharks opened the game with an 8-0 run started by a layup from Janssen, with 3-pointers from Blain and junior Namar Namdar of Sandy, Utah/Alta in the first four minute. But the Penguins rallied with a 10-2 run to knot the game for the first of six times. After Janssen put HPU up 12-10, Dominican got a 3-pointer from Lazar Djurovic to start a 14-2 run that was capped by a 3 from Averbuck for the Penguins largest lead of the game at 24-14 with 7:42 left in the first. It also gave DUC a total 24-6 run.
 
The game of swings then turned to the Sharks, who started with a Janssen layup with 5:44 in the first half to start a 12-2 close of the first half. Ulaneo buried a triple with 1:02 to play and Bettis sent the Shark into halftime with a 28-26 lead on a layup with six seconds left.
 
After no scoring in the first two-and-a half minutes of the second half, the Penguins posted four quick points and started trading scores with the Sharks until Melifonwu tied the game for a sixth time at 35-all with 14:36 to play before Bettis stole the ball from Averbuck and raced for an uncontested layup that put HPU up to stay 37-35 with 14:05 remaining. The plays sparked a 10-0 run putting HPU up by eight with 9:02 to go.
 
HPU held off DUC for the next six minutes and built the Sharks largest lead of 11 on a jumper and free throw by Ulaneo with 3:22 left. After swapping scores to have a nine-point 59-50 advantage with 82 seconds remaining, Talbert hit a jumper, HPU missed the front end of a 1-and-1, and Averbuck buried a 3-pointer from the top of the key to pull Dominican within four at 59-55 with 41.9 left
 
Coming out of the Penguins final timeout, Janssen was fouled and calmly made both free throws. The teams traded free throws to the end of the contest as HPU held on to a 64-57 victory.
 
The Sharks close their five-game homestand on Sunday afternoon as they welcome Academy of Art to Oahu. Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. at Moanalua High School Gym following the women's contest at 1 p.m.