SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — The Dominican University of California women's baketball team is headed to the postseason. The Penguins (15-10/11-7 PacWest) fell 94-91 to first-place Academy of Art but are now guaranteed a trip to the PacWest Championships thanks to UH Hilo's loss on Saturday.

Allyssa Weatherd poured in a career-high 36 points on 12-of-18 shooting with seven rebounds, four assists, four blocks, and three steals. Dominican's all-time leading scorer in the DII era entered the game 13th in the nation in Division II in field goal percentage (58.2 percent) and raised it to 58.7 percent with 12-of-18 shooting that may catapult her into the Top 10.

Zoie Sheng had 27 points for the Urban Knights (22-6/17-1 PacWest), who are locked in a three-way tie for first place with No. 18 Azusa Pacific and No. 4 California Baptist. Jasmin Guinn added 20 points and Regina Camera scored 14 points with seven rebounds and seven assists. D'andree Galipeau led all players with nine rebounds for ART U.

The Penguins erased a 14-point deficit and finally tied the game at the beginning of the fourth quarter. A fast-break three-pointer in the right corner from Alyssa Lorenzo tied the game at 71-71 and Ikeora's old-fashioned three-point play on the next trip down gave Dominican it's first lead of the night, 74-71. The Urban Knights responded with an 8-0 run and built the lead back to nine with 2:40 to go. Weatherd continued to drive to the rim and drew a foul. Her three-point play trimmed the lead to two, 90-88, with a minute to go. ART U free throws kept the lead at five with free throws. A Taylor Donnot bucket kept Dominican within three with a bucket at 2.4 seconds left. Weatherd came up with the steal on the inbounds but her last-second three was off the mark.

Dominican trailed from the start and trailed 37-27 after a high-scoring first quarter that saw both teams shoot a combined 20-of-36 (55.5 percent). The Penguins used a 10-2 run to close out the first half and trailed 53-47 at halftime.

Monday, Feb. 22. marks the Penguins' final home game of 2015-16, at 5:30 p.m. versus Dixie State. Dominican's three seniors — Melissa Boscarino, Jessy Marshall, and Weatherd — will be honored in a pregame ceremony and Dominican will raise awareness for cancer as part of Play 4Kay. Live stats and pay-per-view video will be available at dominicanathletics.com/live with live audio provided by Penguin Radio and the student broadcasters at radio.dominican.edu.
 
Online tickets are now on sale for the 2016 PacWest Basketball Championships. The tournament returns to CU Arena in Irvine, March 3-5. Tickets are available here.