Box Score LAIE, Hawai'i – For the second consecutive game, Kimi Nakamura and Stephanie Carnes produced career-high scoring performances for the Dominican University of California women's basketball team but the Lady Penguins (4-20/3-11) fell to BYU-Hawaii 94-74 in Thursday's Pacific West Conference contest.

Nakamura connected on 11-of-15 shots to score a career-best 26 points and Carnes netted her Dominican-high 19 points on 5-of-11 shooting but their teammates managed to make only 11 of the other 50 shots. Shayla Washington, who entered the game as the league's leading scorer averaging 17.9 points per game, tallied a game-high 31 points for the Seasiders (5-16/4-9).

“Kimi and Steph have played very well,” said Head Coach Brianna Chambers. “Danielle [Yamauchi] also did a good job of attacking the basket and applying defensive pressure. Lauren [Hyatt] did well, hustling for rebounds.”

Carnes, a 5-foot-1 junior point guard, also had a career-high six assists and five rebounds, one less than teammate Jasmine Green who Chambers praised for “the little things that didn't show up on the stat sheet.”  Sophomore Kayla Valentine had seven of her nine points in the second half when Dominican at one junction cut a 21-point deficit to 10 before the Seasiders pulled away.

The Lady Penguins got off to a promising start. Nakamura hit her first four shots and Carnes netted her first two along with three assists as Dominican built five-point lead. When Te Manu Whakataki "Taki" Te Koi hit a jumper for a 17-12 advantage less than five minutes into the contest, it was the eighth made basket in the Lady Penguins' first 10 shots.

Then they suddenly went from red hot to ice cold. Dominican missed 24 of its next 28 shots. Carnes gave the Lady Penguins their last lead, 26-23, with a 3-point shot with 10:04 to go in the first half. It was all BYU-Hawaii after that. The Seasiders scored 16 straight points for a 39-26 lead before Nakamura ended the scoring drought with a 3-pointer with 3:45 left in the half. The Seasiders also took advantage of 14 first-half Dominican turnovers and held a 49-32 lead at intermission.

BYU-Hawaii extended its lead to 21 points early in the second half but then the Lady Penguins staged a rally. They squeezed the Seasiders' cushion to 59-49 on a basket by Nakamura with 13:29 to go. Dominican had two more possessions to cut deeper into BYU-Hawaii's lead but never managed to get the deficit under 10. By the time Nakamura scored again, with 7:05 remaining, the Seasiders had moved their lead back up to 19 and led by as many as 28 points late in the game.

“I thought we were going to step on the gas and pick it up,” Chambers said. “But we had a few missed lay-ups at that key time and just couldn't recover.”

It was Dominican's second loss to BYU-Hawaii this season, though the Lady Penguins actually outscored the Seasiders from the floor by two field goals in those meetings. BYU-Hawaii made 74 trips to the foul line in the two games, 41 more than Dominican.

The Lady Penguins will finish their 10-day, four-game road swing through Hawai'i on Saturday, February 18 against University of Hawai'i, Hilo. Game time is 7:00 p.m. Pacific time.