LOS ANGELES -- Riding a five-game win streak heading into tonight's crosstown-rival match-up at Cal State L.A., Cal State Dominguez Hills suffered its first setback in nearly three weeks after an 82-77 loss to the Golden Eagles despite a game-high 23 points from Josiah Sanders.

CSUDH falls to 12-5 overall and 8-3 in the CCAA, and is now tied with Cal Poly Humboldt for second place in league play with 11 games left in the regular season.

In front of announced crowd of 322 inside a raucous University Gym, the two teams split the game's first 28 points, before a Jayden Johnston put-back gave the Toros their second lead of the game at 16-14 at the 10:42 mark of the first half.

A Jalen Brown bucket five minutes later pushed the Toro advantage to 24-20, only to have CSULA outscore the Cardinal and Gold 16-11 to take a slim 36-35 lead entering the break.

CSUDH quickly erased its deficit to open the second half after a Dasean Stevens triple and Sanders layup gave the Toros a 40-36 lead 57 seconds into the period.

CSULA, however, benefited from a rare 4-point play to knot the contest at 40-40, tying again at 42, 44 and 50-all.

That's when the Golden Eagles rolled off five-straight points, eventually taking a 61-52 lead with 12:38 left in regulation.

A Stevens jumper and David Cheatom 3-pointer cut CSUDH's deficit to just four, with a Za-Ontay Boothman layup bringing the Toros to within 61-59 four minutes later, and to a 64-64 tie at 7:17, courtesy of a Sanders layup.

Brown converted an old-fashioned 3-point play to give the Toros a 67-64 lead at the 5:51 mark, only to see the hosts take their own 3-point lead two minutes later.

Down just 74-73 after Sanders converted a bucket and was fouled, CSULA took advantage of a missed free throw attempt and converted on the other end, and capitalized on a Toro turnover with another basket to take a 78-73 lead with 94 seconds left on the clock.

Sanders gave the Toros hope with a basket at the 1:10 mark, but four-consecutive Golden Eagle free throws down the stretch proved too big an obstacle to overcome in the five-point defeat.

Stevens finished with 17, Brown with 14 and Cheatom with 13, with Cheatom tying for game-high honors with seven rebounds.

The Toros dominated the glass with a +8 advantage, but the Golden Eagles shot a sizzling 54.9% from the floor and 47.8% from downtown to come away with the win.

The two teams complete their home and away series on Saturday, with tip set for 3 pm in the Torodome.