HONOLULU — The Dominican University of California women's basketball team didn't get off to the start that it wanted in its three-game PacWest road trip to Hawaii. The Penguins shot a season-low 29.7 percent (19-of-64) and fell 66-54 to Hawai'i Pacific on Thursday night at the Neal S. Blaisdell Center.

The Penguins (9-5/5-2 PacWest) struggled from the field, including just 25 percent (4-of-16) from deep, and the free throw line (52.2 percent, 12-of-23). Still, Dominican was in the game early. Dominican trailed 19-16 at the end of the first quarter and remained down by three, 30-27, come halftime. The first bucket of the second half came from Taylor Donnot and cut the HPU (9-5/6-1 PacWest) lead to one. Minutes later, Allyssa Weatherd's layup gave the Penguins a 33-31 lead. However, the lead lasted just a minute and the Penguins would not lead again. Cece Pearl's three-pointer gave the Sharks a 34-33 lead with 6:51 to go and the Sharks rattled off a 10-1 run. The Penguins trailed 47-40 by the end of the quarter and had three players with four fouls. Dominican would pull no closer than six.

Weatherd led Dominican with 15 points. Freshman Natalie Diaz added six points and a team-high nine rebounds. Junior Taylor Donnot added 14 points and six rebounds. Sandra Ikeora, the reigning PacWest Player of the Week, did not record a field goal and fouled out.

HPU didn't shoot too much better at 36.1 percent (22-of-61). Pearl came off the bench to lead the Sharks with 17 points and Breanna Mackenzie added 16 points. Aminata Cole led all players with 18 rebounds.

The loss slips the Penguins from a third-place tie with the Sharks to alone in fifth place. Dominican will head to BYU-Hawaii (5-6/2-4 PacWest) on Saturday for a 5 p.m. game on the North Shore.