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SAN RAFAEL, Calif. —  The Dominican University of California women's basketball fought back from an early 10-point deficit to take a late lead but eventually fell to Holy Names University 69-68 on Tuesday night.

Jamie-Leigh Ronolo laid the ball in for the game's first points and the Lady Hawks (4-6) were soon out in front with a 6-0 lead. A Michaelia Baskerville layup got the Lady Penguins (1-3) in the books and cut the lead to 6-2. HNU pushed the lead to as large as 10 with 14 minutes to play before Dominican trimmed the lead to one at 25-24 with 8 minutes to go. HNU again pushed the lead, this time to five, before Dominican fought back to 30-29 with 2:48 to play. A three-pointer by Lesley Vodicska increased the HNU lead to 37-33 headed into halftime.

HNU pushed the lead to 12 in the second half's first five minutes to take to take a 49-37 lead.  Dominican used a 23-11 run to get back into the game midway through the second half. Dominican tied things up at 60-60 from an out of bounds play when Alisha Flaaten found Melissa Wise for the bank shot. Sarah Henning made a bucket to put HNU back ahead by two but a technical foul on Suman Bains sent Flaaten to the line to tie the score at 62-62. With 2:31 to play, Raquel Gomes sank a putback off a Tammy Brawner miss to put Dominican ahead 64-63. Another Gomes layup put the lead to 66-63 with just over a minute and a half. Two free throws by Marie Vodicska trimmed the lead to 66-65 and a jumper by Bains gave the lead back to Holy Names. Free throws by Alisha Flaaten with 10.4 seconds to play tied the game and gave Dominican the lead 69-68. A Ronolo basket gave HNU the game with 2 seconds to play and the Lady Penguins were unable to get off a final shot.

Flaaten led all scorers with 17 points. Gomes added 11 points in the loss. Baskerville pulled down a team-high five rebounds.

Three Lady Hawks reached double digits. Whitne' Blackburn led HNU with 16 points. Bains added 12 points and Lesley Vodicska drained 11 points.

The Dominican women return to the court on Dec. 5 when they travel to Menlo College. Tipoff against the Lady Oaks is set for 7:00 p.m.