SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — The Dominican University of California women's basketball team toughed out a 66-56 victory over Holy Names in Thursday's PacWest Conference opener.

The Penguins (5-3/1-0  PacWest) were shorthanded without Natalie Diaz (concussion), Marisa Mondave (foot), and Alexis Price (ankle) so Head Coach Tim LaKose only went eight players deep. Two Penguins, leading scorers Sandra Ikeora and Taylor Donnot, both got in foul trouble in the first half and had to play carefully before both fouled out in the fourth quarter. Luckily, the other six Penguins totaled five fouls total.

Holy Names (0-7/0-1 PacWest) grabbed control early. After countering Dominican's opening bucket, the Hawks grabbed a lead a minute and a half into action and turned it into an 18-13 lead by the end of the quarter. HNU's lead held until the 36-second mark in the second quarter. An eight-point run, with five of those coming from Ikeora, gave Dominican a 30-29 lead for the first time since the opening play. A Hawks jumper made it 31-30 and Ikeora made a free throw to tie the game 31-31 at halftime.

Donnot made a pair of free throws and Ashley Sorensen's layup, followed by a pair of Ikeora free throws, gave Dominican a 51-46 lead with under two minutes to go in the third quarter and the Hawks got no closer than five points the rest of the way.

Dominican shot just 38.9 percent (21-of-54) from the field but was markedly improved at the free throw line, where the Penguins made 72.7 perecent (24-of-33) of their attempts. Ikeora followed up Tuesday's 22-point, program-record 25-rebound game versus Cal State Monterey Bay with a game-high 25-point, nine-rebound night. Donnot added 14 points and five rebounds. Sorensen had 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting and grabbed nine boards.

Holy Names was held to 33.8 percent (24-of-71) shooting and was led by 17 points from Jeana Magana. Tatiana Howard scored 10 points and led all players with 17 rebounds.

The Penguins host BYU-Hawaii on Saturday, Dec. 10 at 5:30 p.m. Live stats and pay-per-view video will be available at dominicanathletics.com/live with live audio provided by the student broadcasters of Penguin Radio. Live updates will also be available on the @dominican_wbb Twitter account.