Box Score ST. GEORGE, Utah – Dominican women's basketball was unable to find an answer to hot-shooting behind the arc from Dixie State as it fell 93-79 Friday night at Burns Arena.
Natalie Diaz led the Penguins (10-4, 4-2 PacWest) with 22 points and eight rebounds, while
Sydney Larocca scored a career-high 15 points and dished out three assists off the bench. Matti Ventling and Ali Franks led the Trailblazers (7-7, 3-4 PacWest) with 21 points each.
Dixie State took advantage of
Sandra Ikeora's absence to outrebound Dominican 64-37 and hit 14 3-pointers, 12 in the second half to top the Penguins.
Dominican jumped out to a quick 5-1 lead to start the game after
Vanessa Cruz hit a jumper and
Julia Razo knocked down a 3-pointer, but Dixie State scored the next eight points to take a 9-5 lead on a Taylor Moeaki layup.
Natalie Diaz then tallied four points to lead a 9-2 charge and give the Penguins back the lead at 14-11.
After the Trailblazers closed the gap to one at 20-19,
Anjelica Collins laid the ball in on a Diaz assist and then Diaz added two layups of her own in the final minute to send the Penguins into the second quarter with a 26-19 lead.
Alanna Scott hit a 3-pointer and
Julia Razo laid the ball in to increase the large lead of the half to 10 with seven minutes remaining in the half. Ventling scored the next nine points for Dixie State and the Trailblazers rallied to take a brief 32-31 lead. Cruz laid in the ball after a Razo steal and Scott added a make behind the arc to send Dominican into the half with a 38-36 lead.
The second half began much like the first with the teams trading buckets and leads until Ali Franks hit back-to-back 3-pointers for Dixie State to give them a 48-43 lead with 6:09 left in the period. Diaz and Larocca each found their way into the lane to close the lead back to one at 48-47 one minute later. The Trailblazers continued to knock down 3-pointers to build a nine-point lead heading to the final period.
Dixie State remained hot from behind the arc in the fourth quarter to build its lead to 16 at 73-57 with 8:23 remaining. Diaz and Larocca combined for the next nine points to cut the lead back to seven with 5:49 remaining.
Marisa Mondave hit a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to five for the Penguins, but Ventling answered on the other end with 2:49 left on the clock. The Trailblazers found their 3-point stroke down the stretch to close it out.
Dominican will wrap up its road trip at Academy of Art on Wednesay at 5:30 p.m. at Kezar Pavilion. Live stats and video will be available online.
