Box Score The Dominican University men’s basketball team dropped game two of the team’s west coast trip to Los Angeles, Calif., on Saturday evening, falling to the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags 81-55.  The loss drops the Stars to 0-5 with the Stars’ Northern Athletics Conference (NAC) opener on Tuesday, as the Stars square off against the Concordia University Chicago Cougars.
 
Dominican trailed by just two, 23-21, with 4:46 to play in the first half, but the Stags closed out the half on an 11-2 run to take a 34-23 lead at the break and never looked back.
 
The Stars were led by Darius Nelson’s (Michigan City, Ind.) team-high 15 points on 5-for-9 shooting from the field, connecting on three three-point field goals and going a perfect 2-for-2 from the foul line.  Rolando Shumate (Wheaton, Ill.) added nine points, connected on three three’s, in the losing effort.
 
Defensively, the Stars surrendered eight three’s to the Stags who shot 8-for-15 from long distance.  Chris Blees, a preseason second team all-America selection, led the Stags with 20 points while Mani Maceiri and Jack Grodahl added 15 points apiece.
 
Dominican’s five non-conference opponents to open the season, hold a combined 13-3 record with one of the losses to NCAA Division I Pepperdine University and another to St. Thomas, the defending Division III National Champions.  Starting with Concordia Chicago on Tuesday, the Stars will play four NAC contests in row ending with the Maranatha Baptist Bible College Crusaders on December 10.