AZUSA, Calif. -- Azusa Pacific needed every last one of its 62 rebounds to pull off another dramatic victory Monday night, with Petar Kutlesic providing the final rebound with the game-winning putback and three-point play with 3.5 seconds left in double overtime to lift the Cougars to a 96-94 win over Dominican.

Kutlesic made a pair of free throws with less than a minute left, pushing Azusa Pacific ahead by one, 93-92, but Seth Turner answered with a jumper that pushed Dominican in front, 94-93. On the Cougars' final possession, four consecutive three-pointers were off the mark as the final seconds ticked down, but senior forward Jared Zoller rebounded the first three before Kutlesic hauled in Connor Peterson's long-range miss and dropped in a layup as he was fouled. He finished off the three-point play, and Ryo Tawatari's desperation halfcourt heave under pressure fell short of the basket to seal the Cougar victory.

"If we had daylight to attack the paint, I didn't want to call the timeout on that last possession because we've been able to get good shots in transition all year," Azusa Pacific head coachJustin Leslie said. "We missed on a great look right off the bat, but we had great floor balance when we shot it, and that rebound started the whole sequence of events. Those kick-out threes when someone throws it out to you stepping in for a shot are great shots, and we're a team that shoots 40 percent from three. We had four looks at that exact shot, and we'll take that all day long. Fortunately, Petar decided to keep it and shoot that last one and got the and-one."

The win avenges Azusa Pacific's two-point road defeat to the Penguins three weeks ago, and it sets up a Friday night battle between the Cougars and PacWest-leading Concordia for the inside track to the conference regular-season title. The Cougars sit one game back of Concordia in the loss column at 18-6 overall, 12-4 PacWest, while Dominican dropped to 12-12 overall and 8-9 in the PacWest.

"We have a chance at a conference championship, but the margin we have right now is razor-thin," Leslie said. "If we pull this together, we have an opportunity to write a story that will bond this team together and provide them the experience of a lifetime. Chances to win a conference tournament and play in an NCAA tournament are the chances of a lifetime, and it's right here for us. If we don't get serious about committing to our details, and if we don't grow up right inside of the finish line of those two things that are so worth it, it's going to vanish."

Kutlesic finished with a team-high 19 points along with a game-high 14 rebounds, and Peterson tallied 18 points, 11 rebounds, and six assists to lead Azusa Pacific's 62-31 rebounding edge over Dominican, which led for over 42 minutes of the game and held a five-point edge heading into the final two minutes of regulation. The Penguins didn't score again in regulation, and Bruce English started the rally with a pair of free throws to trim the deficit to 71-68 before Peterson hit the first of two from the line with less than a minute left to cut the margin to 71-69.

Seth Turner missed a pair of free throws with just under 30 seconds to play, and English registered the game-tying layup after rebounding his first miss to tie the game at 71-71. Matt Hayes' three-pointer as time expired was off the mark, sending the game to overtime where Dominican scored the first four points to take a 75-71 lead. However, Corey Langerveld andJoey Schreiber connected on back-to-back three-pointers during a 10-0 run, giving Azusa Pacific an 81-75 edge with 1:03 left in the first overtime.

Josh Ramirez connected on a jumper to trim the margin to 81-77, and a Tawatari steal set up a Christopher Schwartz-Edmisten three that made it a one-point game, 81-80, with 28 seconds remaining. After Schreiber nailed a pair of free throws, Tawatari tied things up with a straightaway three-pointer with five seconds left, and a Langerveld heave from halfcourt hit the rim but bounced away to end the first extra period.

Dominican also struck first in the second overtime with a Ramirez jumper, and Tawatari's third three-pointer of the game pushed the Penguins in front by a four-point margin, 92-88, with 1:59 remaining. Peterson answered with a three of his own on the ensuing possession, pulling the Cougars within one at 92-91, and Kutlesic made two free throws with 49 seconds to play to push Azusa Pacific ahead, 93-92, and set up the last-second heroics.

"I love coaching this team, but my desire is for them to reach their potential," Leslie said. "This is an unbelievable win, and we've won our last couple of games in very dramatic fashion. It's great that we're finding ways to win, but we're playing with fire. We need to come out and make sure we execute better from start to finish. This is the moment where we decide our margin for error is completely gone this year, and my challenge is for this team to dare to be great. They need to sell out for the sake of the team by being willing to practice better, start games better, and communicate better."

Dominican shot 57 percent (16-for-28) from the field in the first half, including five-of-10 (50 percent) from three-point range in the first half, and the Penguins took a 43-31 lead into halftime. However, Azusa Pacific posted a 41-19 rebounding edge in the second half and overtime, grabbing 20 of its 28 offensive boards after halftime to contribute to a 32-10 margin in second chance points for the game. Dominican finished the game shooting 47 percent (33-for-70) overall but did hit 48 percent (12-of-25) from long range.

Dominican had seven players finish with double figures in scoring, led by 22 points from Ramirez and 14 points off the bench from Schwartz-Edmisten. Tawatari added 13 points and a team-high seven assists for the Penguins, whose three-game road trip to Point Loma, California Baptist, and Azusa Pacific resulted in three defeats by a combined margin of just six points.

"Dominican is a tough team to play because of some of the matchup problems they create," Leslie said. "Some foul trouble forced them to go small, and that really changed the game. Because of that, we had to do some things that were a little uncharacteristic for us, but the guys adjusted and in the second half I thought we defended really well."

Peterson and Langerveld scored 18 points each to follow Kutlesic's 19-point, 14-rebound double-double, and Schreiber came off the bench to score 15 points with eight rebounds. English finished with 12 points before fouling out midway through the second overtime, and Zoller grabbed eight rebounds with half of his six offensive rebounds coming on the game-winning final possession.