Master’s Outclasses Dominican : Men’s basketball: The Penguines give a big effort come up far short against taller Mustangs, 103-60.

You have to give Dominican College an A for effort in Friday night’s 103-60 defeat to The Master’s.

Dominican, with a much-smaller and less-talented team, went into the Far West Region Independent League game winless and with only two starters over 6 feet.

The Penguines tried desperately to keep up with the quicker, taller and more-powerful Mustangs, who also happen to be defending league champions.

Dominican stayed in the game early by applying a full-court press, but had trouble scoring enough points to keep up.

With 14:37 left in the first half the Penguines only trailed by three, but the Mustangs went on a 9-2 run that gave them a 23-13 lead.

Dominican never had a chance after that. The Penguines ran hard, but never came within 15 points the rest of the way.

“They played with a lot of heart,” Master’s Coach Bill Oates said. “That made us have to work the whole time. They just didn’t give up.”

But effort and will wasn’t enough.

Master’s (13-3, 3-0 in league play) led by 16 with five minutes left in the first half and by halftime the Mustangs were ahead, 52-27.

Things got downright embarrassing in the second half. The Penguines scored only two baskets in the first 10 minutes even though The Master’s had mostly reserves on the floor.

That was the one good thing about the game: the reserves got their playing time.

“It’s important for our reserves to get the opportunity to play,” Oates said. “It doesn’t happen that often, so it was a good thing.”

Six Mustangs scored in double figures. Sophomore center Leo Gorauskas and senior forward Colin Lubsey led the group with 15 points each.

Senior forward Rogerio Soares, junior guard Tim Gaydos and junior forward James Mosley each had 11 points and senior forward Matt Ratzlaff scored 10.

“We just can’t match up against a team like that,” Dominican Coach Steve Smith said. “We still play hard, but we just can’t do it.”

Dominican was led by freshman forward Jon Cox, who had 13 points. Bill Borda added 12 points and freshman guard Briant Cowens scored 11.

About the only exciting thing in the game was Lubsey’s dunk with 8:55 left to play. The small crowd of about 300 actually woke up and cheered.

Dominican (1-15, 0-2) is located in San Rafael, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.