Box Score Hayward, Calif. — For most of the first half on Saturday, the new-look Dominican University of California women's basketball team was looking good. The Lady Penguins twice built nine-point leads against Humboldt State, a team that finished 19-8 last season and ranked seventh in the final NCAA Div. II West Region poll.

And then the Lumberjacks got hot and Dominican struggled to score. Despite a career-high 17 points and career-high 13 rebounds by 6-foot-4 sophomore center Sarah Nelson, the Lady Penguins succumbed to the 3-point shooting of Humboldt State, which netted seven from beyond the arc in a 69-49 non-conference win over Dominican in the CCAA/Pacific West Conference Challenge at Cal State East Bay.

Freshman Jessy Marshall and junior college transfer Yvonne Sanchez combined for 11 points for the Lady Penguins (0-2) while Lisa Petty, the leading scorer and second leading rebounder from last season's HSU squad, had 18 points and 13 rebounds in 36 minutes for the Lumberjacks (1-1). With the Lady Penguins staying close at 33-26 in the second half, Petty nailed a 3-pointer to cap a 15-5 run then hit another trey to push the Lumberjacks' lead to 23, 64-41, with 7:10 remaining.

“We started strong, but in the second half we kept fouling them. They made more free throws [22] than we attempted [19],” said Head Coach Brianna Chambers. “But we got better. We are still trying to figure out our playing style with so many new players. We will keep battling.”

Dominican and Nelson started fast. A Noelle Roldan three-pointer, the Lady Penguins' only trey of the game, sparked Dominican to an early 14-9 advantage and a Kimi Nakamura lay-up off a Sanchez assist boosted the lead to as high as 11. With about seven minutes left in the opening half, Dominican was in front 20-11 and Nelson already had eight rebounds. Her hoop off a pass from Roldan put the Lady Penguins ahead 24-18 with 3:32 left before intermission.

At that point, Humboldt had missed 23 of its first 27 shots. But the Lumberbacks finished the first half on an 8-0 run and shot 47 percent (16-for-34) from the floor after their 4-for-27 start.

Nelson, who finished the contest with a game-high four blocked shots, had six points in the first half, two more than Marshall off the bench and sophomore point guard Danielle Yamauchi, who also had two assists. Nelson connected on a career-best 8-of-13 shots in the game in 30 minutes of action, also a career-high, yet the rest of her teammates managed to make only 12 of 41 field goal tries, a 29 percent shooting percentage.

“Sarah had another great game,” said Chambers. “She played a lot of minutes and had a very productive weekend."

The Lady Penguins will make their home season debut at the Conlan Center on Saturday, Nov. 17 against Cal State Stanislaus. Game time is 2:00 p.m. Live coverage will be available at www.dominicanathletics.com/live.