SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — The Dominican University of California women's basketball team used a late 14-0 run to top Dixie State 78-69 in the Penguins' final home game of the season.
The Penguins (16-10/12-7 PacWest) trailed 54-48 with 2:38 to go after a pair of Brianna Jessop free throws.
Taylor Donnot got to the rim to cut the lead to four, then a Taylor Mann turnover led to a second-chance layup for Donnot.
Natalie Diaz drew a rebound going for a rebound and made both of her free throws to tie the game at 54-54 with 1:38 to go. Diaz got to the rim for another layup, and hit a three from the top left of the arc to give the Penguins a 59-54 lead. Dixie State's (7-17/7-11 PacWest) drought continued two minutes into the fourth quarter. From there, Dominican built the lead to as large as 11.
The Red Storm led the entire first half, in large part due to nine first-half turnovers by the Penguins. Dominican also struggled from the field (10-of-29, 34.5 percent) in the first half but picked up the scoring in the second half (18-of-34, 52.9 percent) and pentrated for 28 second-half points in the paint.
Senior
Allyssa Weatherd followed a career-high 36 points with 31 points on 11-of-15 shooting. She entered the game tenth in NCAA DII in field goal percentage (58.7 percent) and should continue to climb in the rankings.
Taylor Donnot added 14 points and
Natalie Diaz scored 12 points off the bench in her first game back from a concussion.
Ashley Sorensen grabbed a team-high nine rebounds to go with half a dozen points.
The Penguins keyed on Taylor Mann, who entered as the PacWest Player of the Week. Mann scored the Red Storm's first seven points, which made her the third player in DSU history to reach 1,000 points. She had a team-high 21 points, 15 of which came in the first half, and a game-high 14 rebounds.
Dominican closes out the regular season with a matinee at Fresno Pacific on Saturday, Feb. 27. Tipoff is slated for 2:30 p.m.
From there, the Penguins will head to the 2016 PacWest Basketball Championships. The tournament returns to CU Arena in Irvine, March 3-5. Tickets are on sale
here.