Box Score SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — The two-day, four-team CCAA/PacWest at the Conlan Center was a tough test for the Dominican University of California women's basketball team.

The cold-shooting Lady Penguins (0-2) went more than 12 minutes without a field goal and struggled to get into an offensive rhythm in a 59-38 setback to Cal State East Bay (1-1) on Saturday. Sarah Nelson, a 6-foot-4 freshman, had seven rebounds and seven blocked shots for Dominican and teammate Kayla Valentine netted a game-high 15 points, but the sophomore made only five of her 19 shots, which was reflective of the Lady Penguins' off night.

Dominican shot 22 percent from the floor as a team and recorded its lowest scoring game since it scored 34 points at San Francisco State on Nov. 19, 2008.

Even more frustrating for the Lady Penguins, the Pioneers shot only 28.8 percent in the non-league contest.

“We let one get away. This is a game we should have had and our players know it,” said Dominican Head Coach Brianna Chambers. “We showed our youth.”

Now the Lady Penguins have a greater challenge in front of them in the colder climes of the Last Frontier. Dominican has back-to-back games on the road this coming Friday and Saturday against Alaska-Anchorage, the 12th-ranked team in the country in the USA Today's NCAA Division II preseason poll.  Led by All-American candidate Hanna Johansson, a senior from Gothenburg, Sweden, the Seawolves are coming off a 2010-11 season when they posted a 27-7 record and advanced to the NCAA Div. II West Regional semifinals.

In the tune-up for the Alaska-Anchorage game, Dominican put itself in a bad spot early in the game with poor shooting and ball control. The Lady Penguins missed 16 of their first 20 shots while committing 14 turnovers by the 12-minute mark of the game when they fell behind 20-10.

Beginning with a pull-up jumper by freshman Ariana Flynn, Dominican started to heat up. A Jasmine Green drive and 3-pointers by Flynn and freshman Danielle Yamauchi had the Pioneers' lead down to six, but the Lady Penguins couldn't get any closer by halftime.

Dominican connected on five of its last 10 shots in the first half and wound up outrebounding CSUEB 29-17, 12-6 on the offensive end in the first 20 minutes yet the Lady Penguins had 20 turnovers to only six by the Pioneers and thus trailed 34-23.

Things didn't improve for the Lady Penguins after intermission. Redshirt freshman Lauren Hyattt, who scored a game-high 16 points on Friday, picked up her fourth foul 12 seconds into the second half then the Lady Penguins missed their first 10 shots of the second half and committed five more turnovers and found themselves trailing 48-24 with 10 minutes to play after the Pioneers  scored 14 straight points.

In the earlier PacWest/CCAA Challenge game on Saturday, Whitney Howard scored a game-high 19 points off the bench to lead Humboldt State (2-0) to a 68-54 win over Academy of Art University (1-1).