Dominguez Hills Beats Azusa Pacific to Snap 5-Game Losing Streak, 77-70

Cal State Dominguez Hills outscored visiting Azusa Pacific University, 29-15, to open the second half, then went to a four-corner offense to take a 77-70 non-conference basketball victory Wednesday night.

Dominguez Hills (1-5), ended a five-game losing streak, the worst start in the school’s history. Azusa Pacific fell to 4-2.

Dominguez Hills trailed by five points in the first 12 minutes of the game but took the lead for good, 24-21, on a three-point basket by senior forward Brian Johnson with 5:16 left in the half.

Dominguez Hills, which led by three points at the half, opened a 48-38 lead four minutes into the second half. Azusa Pacific cut that to 48-45 with 13 minutes to go, but then the Toros ran off 11 unanswered points.

Coach David Yanai of Dominguez Hills, who started three freshmen for the fifth consecutive time, was pleased with the effort.

“We had good recognition from an offensive standpoint of the type of shots we needed to take,” he said. “We got the good shot selection we needed to get from different people. In the previous five games we didn’t execute as well as we thought we should have at this point in the season.”

The teams combined to commit 30 turnovers, but Dominguez Hills made 21 of 28 free-throw attempts.

Junior guard Robert Barksdale (25 points) shared high-scoring honors with Azusa Pacific’s Matt Burns. Other players in double figures were Brian Johnson (18) and Vincent Washington (15) of Dominguez Hills and Patrick McMann and Jeff Hester of the Cougars.