Box Score RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Dominican women's basketball fell 94-76 to Cal Baptist Wednesday at the CBU Events Center, snapping their seven game winning streak.
 
Natalie Diaz recorded a double-double, leading the Penguins (10-3, 4-1 PacWest) with 28 points and 12 rebounds. Sophomore Vanessa Cruz tallied a career-high 20 points, shooting 5-9 from 3-point range while adding four assists and four rebounds. Tori Mitchell shot 10-12 from the field to lead the Lancers (7-6, 4-1 PacWest) with 22 points.
 
Cal Baptist shot the ball well to start the game, converting on six of their first 10 attempts and jumping out to an 18-10 advantage. A 3-pointer from Cruz cut the deficit to five and another triple from Cruz later brought Dominican within five again at 23-18. The Lancers responded with a pair of 3-pointers to end the frame, taking a 29-18 lead.
 
The Penguins quickly started chipping away in the second quarter. With Dominican trailing 33-23 early in the period, Diaz connected on a 3-pointer and Cruz followed with another triple of her own. After a steal by Cruz, Diaz finished a layup to bring the Penguins within two and force Cal Baptist to take a timeout. The two sides went back and forth for the rest of the frame before sophomore Marisa Mondave, in her first game returning from an injury, nailed a 3-pointer with less than a minute left in the half to give Dominican a 46-43 lead going into the locker room.
 
The Lancers took the lead back less than a minute into the third quarter as Emily Schmidt hit a layup to put Cal Baptist ahead 50-48. The Lancers slowly stretched their lead as the advantage grew to nine on a layup from Mitchell with less than three minutes left in the frame. Another steal by Cruz led to a late layup by senior Alexis Price to help the Penguins trim their deficit to 70-63 heading into the fourth quarter.
 
A 10-2 run over the first two minutes of the fourth quarter stretched Cal Baptist's lead to 80-65. Dominican went cold for most of the final frame, falling behind 85-67 on a 3-pointer by Lexy Ram with four minutes remaining in the game. The Penguins were unable to get much closer in the final minutes, dropping their first contest in PacWest play.
 
The Lancers assisted on 30 of their 39 made field goals on 45.9 percent shooting for the game. Dominican was held to just 36.4 percent shooting.
 
The Penguins take the floor again Friday at Dixie State for a 5:30 p.m. tip. Live stats and video will be available online.