HONOLULU — The Dominican University of California women's basketball team persevered on Saturday in an 82-77 PacWest Conference victory at Chaminade.
Sandra Ikeora scored a career-high 31 points and grabbed 15 rebounds for her sixth double-double of the season. The junior forward was 12-of-26 from the field and made seven free throws. She is second in the PacWest in scoring (19.7 ppg) and leads the conference in rebounding (12.2 rpg).
Early on, it was
Taylor Donnot who was the difference. The team's second-leading scorer wasted no time bouncing back from a one-point performance in Thursday's loss. She poured in 11 points in the first quarter, which was the difference at the end of the quarter as the Penguins (6-5/2-2 PacWest) led 26-15. She finished her night finished with 16 points and six rebounds.
Dominican went up by 12 to begin the second quarter but a 10-0 Chaminade (1-7/1-4 PacWest) run trimmed the lead to two. Dominican clung to a slim lead until the last seconds of the half. A jumper from Destiny Castro (team-high 22 points) with three seconds left sent the Penguins into intermission trailing 37-36. The Penguins regained the lead in the third quarter but Chaminade responded on a 14-0 run that saw Dominican fall silent for over three minutes. The deficit grew to 14 with 3:36 to go in the quarter but Dominican got to the free throw line and used 10 consecutive free throws to cut the lead to one, 59-58.
Natalie Diaz's three-pointer with 1:03 to go sent Dominican into the final quarter with a 61-59 lead.
The Silverswords began the fourth quarter on an 8-0 run but another Diaz basket, followed by a pair of steals led to layups and another tie, 67-67. Tied 77-77 with under a minute and a half,
Alanna Scott gave the Penguins the lead for good with a three-pointer. The Silverswords kept their chances alive with a pair of Dominican turnovers but were forced to foul.
Carly Holboke iced the game with a pair of free throws with two seconds left.
Dominican will look to make it a winning road trip on Monday, Dec. 19 at Hawai'i Hilo (1-6/1-3 PacWest). Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. Pacific.
