HONOLULU – Hawai'i Pacific University had a 7-0 run in the last two minutes with an alley-oop exclamation point in a 66-65 PacWest Conference win against Dominican (Calif.) on Saturday afternoon at The Shark Tank.
 
The Sharks (6-9, 4-5) used an alley-oop dunk by senior Daniel Melifonwu of San Diego/Lincoln off a pass from junior David Rowlands of Dayton, Ohio/Moorpark with 24 seconds remaining to snatch the win from the Penguins (2-12, 2-6).
 
Senior Ronald Blain of McDonough, Ga./Union Grove led the Sharks with 16 points and seven rebounds, with junior Tavon Tarpley of McLean, Va./Langley coming off the bench with 14 points and six rebounds.
Redshirt freshman Ryan Godges of Santa Barbara, Calif./San Marcos chipped in nine points, while freshman Trey Chapman of Healdsburg, Calif./Healdsburg grabbed six boards to go with his eight points.
 
Dominican was led by Jaelen Ragsdale with 29 points, with Jordan Williams posting 12 points and six assists, and Lazar Djurovic adding 10. Romeo Mays led DUC with seven rebounds to go with seven points and four steals.
 
HPU hit 25-of-56 (45 percent) from the floor, including 6-of-19 (32 percent) from the 3-point arc. The Sharks made 10-of-18 free throws (56 percent). Dominican shot 52 percent from the field (25-of-48) and 6-of-11 (55 percent) from the arc. The Penguins made 9-of-14 (64 percent) of their attempts from the charity stripe. HPU outrebounded DUC 36-22 as both teams suffered 12 turnovers.
 
The contest was one of swings and change as the score was tied 11 times and featured nine lead changes.
 
Dominican held the advantage early in the first half, building their largest lead – eight points – on a pair of free throws by Djurovic with 8:13 remaining in the half. The Sharks answered with a 10-2 run capped by a Blain layup with 5:04 in the half to tie the contest at 27. The Penguins replied with a 7-0 run and carried a 36-31 lead into halftime.
 
HPU got the second half off right with a 6-1 run to tie the game and collected a lead on another 9-2 run to go up 46-41 with 13:17 left in the game. The squads battled to a 53-all tie with 7:22 to play when the Penguins got a Djurovic jumper to key 6-0 run. The teams swapped scores again and the Penguins still held the six-point lead at 65-59 with 2:05 left on a Williams jumper. However, that would be the last DUC score as the Sharks dialed down the defense.
 
Rowlands put HPU on the right track with 1:45 to play on a key 3-pointer, followed by a Melinfonwu block of Williams that Blain snared the rebound. Blain followed with a layup with 59 seconds to play and the Sharks were down just one at 65-64. After a timeout, DUC again set up Williams for a jumper, but he missed with Tarpley hauling in the board with 33 seconds left. Sharks quickly put the ball in point man Rowlands hand and he saw the opportunity for a lob to the bucket. Melifonwu saw it as well and skied for the alley-oop slam with 24 seconds to go to take the 66-65 advantage.
 
DUC could not get a good look on the following possession as Ragsdale launched a 3-pointer with five seconds left that Blain rebounded and was fouled with 1.6 to play.
 
Blain missed his first free throw, then intentionally missed his second – but failed to hit the rim, allowing the Penguins to set up a throw in play. The HPU defense stymied the Penguins, who didn't get a half-court shot attempt off when the horn sounded to end the game.
 
HPU, who has now won two straight and three of its last five, closes the six-game new year's homestand on Thursday night. Cross-town rival Chaminade visits The Shark Tank for a contest slated to tip at 6:30 p.m., following the HPU-CUH women's contest that evening.