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SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — It was an historic night for Dominican University of California athletics as the University's basketball teams played their first-ever Pacific West Conference games, but the women's basketball team fell 78-60 in its home opener against Hawa'i Pacific University on Tuesday evening.

The Lady Penguins (3-9/0-1) fell behind early 5-0 before Marin native Melissa Wise scored the first-ever Dominican point in PacWest play on the front-end of a pair of free throws. Paris Gravely nailed a three-pointer for HPU (5-4/1-0) to push the Sea Warrior lead to six but a Kimi Nakamura three-pointer capped a 5-0 Dominican run to trim the lead to one. Gravely nailed the second of her three three-pointers to give HPU an 11-point lead at 30-19 with eight minutes to play and her third three-pointer gave HPU its biggest lead of the half at 14, before Taki Te Koi cut the lead to 10 with a pair of free throws. Another HPU three-ball sent Dominican into the locker room trailing 46-33.

Kelsey Janusch made the back end of a free throw attempt, Alisha Flaaten drove for a layup, and Tammy Brawner knocked down a pair of free throws to open the half on a 5-0 Dominican run.  The Sea Warriors stifled the Dominican offense for the next four minutes with a 13-2 run that pushed the HPU lead to 59-40. A Mana Hopkins jumper gave the Sea Warriors a 20-point advantage and she helped extend the HPU lead to 27 points with an and-one with 6:11 to play. Dominican finished the half on a 15-6 run.

Nakamura led Dominican with a career-high 17 points. Flaaten added 14 points in the loss. Brawner and Kiley Berlinksi each added six points for the Lady Penguins. Michaelia Baskerville led all rebounders with seven boards.

Hopkins led all scorers with 25 points. Gravely scored all 11 of her points in the first half and Genesis Lewis added 11 points and a game-high seven rebounds.

The Dominican women will search for their first PacWest victory on Saturday, Jan. 9 when the University of Hawai'i at Hilo comes calling. Tipoff of the women's and men's double-header is slated for 5:30 p.m. at the Conlan Center.