Box Score SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — Except for one stretch Wednesday night, the Dominican University of California women's basketball team played pretty even with the second-place team in the Pacific West Conference. Unfortunately, it was a long stretch.

Sophomore Sarah Nelson notched her second straight double-double for the Lady Penguins, yet visiting Hawai'i Pacific University broke open a close game in the second half by scoring 23 consecutive points to defeat Dominican 77-53 in the Conlan Center.

Nelson had a team-high 12 points and game-high 10 rebounds, her fifth double-double of the season for the Lady Penguins (5-11/4-4). Teammate Lauren Hyatt added nine rebounds and eight points while Salonika Quewon-Owens chipped in with nine points, including two free throws with 17:19 to play that cut HPU's lead to six points, 40-34. The Lady Penguins then went nearly 10 minutes without scoring against the Sea Warriors (11-3/7-1), the league's best shooting team who won their sixth straight game by connecting on 59.4 percent of their shots in the second half.

Danielle Yamauchi and freshman Jessy Marshall contributed six points apiece off the bench for the Lady Penguins.

“We've got to get better,” said Dominican Head Coach Brianna Chambers. “It's just one of those things where we need a reality check to get re-focused.”

Despite the loss, Dominican, predicted by league coaches in November to finish 12th in the PacWest this season, remained in seventh place in the 14-team conference. The top six eligible teams qualify for the inaugural PacWest tournament at Azusa Pacific University on March 7-9. California Baptist, which is one spot ahead of Dominican, is not eligible this season as it's in the process of transitioning to NCAA Division II.

The Lady Penguins, who lost  by only seven points to HPU when they played in Hawai'i on Jan. 9, had difficulty defending the paint in the first half as the Sea Warriors were able to score and rebound inside.  With the help of Dominican turnovers, HPU, by the 12-minute mark, had launched 14 more shots than the Lady Penguins to build a 16-point lead, 22-6, with a 10-0 run.

Dominican, however, tightened its defense and battled back to eventually reel off nine consecutive points.  Nelson hit a pair of turnaround jumpers followed by a 3-point shot by Marshall and a Jasmine Cox basket off an Yvonne Sanchez pass. But, with a chance to cut the Sea Warriors' lead to five or four points, the Lady Penguins committed another turnover, their 12th of the game, at the six-minute mark.

Though Dominican committed seven more turnovers, gave up nine more rebounds and took 20 fewer shots than the Sea Warriors in the first half, the Lady Penguins, shooting 44 percent, only trailed by eight points, 33-25, at intermission after a 3-pointer and a buzzer-beating jumper by Yamauchi.

Dominican continued to press and twice cut HPU's lead to six points on a Nelson basket off an assist by Sanchez then five straight points by Quewon-Owens. But the Sea Warriors proceeded to score 23 unanswered points in the next nine minutes

The Lady Penguins go on the road to Belmont on Saturday, Jan. 26 to play PacWest and Bay Area rival Notre Dame de Namur. Game time is 5:00 p.m.