HONOLULU — The Dominican University of California women's basketball team dropped its first game of a three-game trip to Hawaii with an 85-51 loss at Hawai'i Pacific on Thursday night.

The Penguins (5-5/1-2 PacWest) trailed 14-12 after one quarter but the first-place Sharks (5-2/3-0 PacWest) outscored Dominican 24-12 in the second quarter and led 38-24 at the half. The Penguins were even colder in the third quarter, where they were outscored 21-9, and outscored 26-18 in the final 10 minutes.

The Penguins held HPU to 39.8 percent (33-of-83) but only shot 29.8 percent (17-of-57) themselves, including a season-low 12.5 percent (2-of-16) from deep. The Penguins have struggled from behind the arc lately. After opening the season shooting 35.2 percent hrough their first half dozen games, the Penguins have cooled considerably, having shot just 15.1 percent (8-of-53) from deep over their last four games. Dominican was outrebounded 60-44.

Junior forward Sandra Ikeora posted her fifth double-double of the season with 13 points on 5-of-14 shooting and 15 rebounds. She is second in the PacWest in scoring (18.6) and leads the conference in rebounding (11.9). Natalie Diaz added nine points and Alexis Price had eight points. Taylor Donnot, who entered the game as the Penguins' second-leading scorer with 12.9 points per game, attempted just one field goal and scored one point in nine minutes.

Breanna Mckenzie had a game-high 21 points for the Sharks. VeAnne Navarro added 11 points off the bench.

Dominican heads to Chaminade (1-6/1-3 PacWest) on Saturday, Dec. 17 and Hawai'i Hilo (1-5/1-3 PacWest) on Monday, Dec. 19. Tipoff for both games is slated for 7 p.m. Pacific.