SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – Dominican women's basketball held off Cal State Monterey Bay for an 81-69 victory Wednesday night at the Conlan Center in the final game before the Christmas break.

Senior forward Natalie Diaz led the Penguins (7-2) with a double-double of 35 points and 11 rebounds playing 39 minutes. Senior guard Alanna Scott added 17 points and three blocks, while sophomore guard Julia Razo scored 15 points, grabbed seven rebounds and dished out seven assists. Edina del Rosario had a fantastic game as a facilitator dishing out seven assists for Dominican. 

Jordanna Price scored a team-high 29 points for the Otters (0-10) to go with nine rebounds. Chyna Dews joined her in double figure scoring with 13 points for CSUMB. 

The Penguins shot 51.7 percent from the field for the game and rebounded from a poor 3-point shooting half to hit 31.3 percent from behind the arc. The Otters were nearly the opposite, shooting 40.6 percent from the field, but were hot from distance making 57.1 percent of their 3-pointers. However, Dominican forced 21 turnovers to hold a 24-12 advantage on points off turnovers, which proved to be the final margin of victory.

The Penguins started strong as Diaz scored four quick points before sophomore center Savannah McMorrow sealed her defender down low for an easy layup to make it 6-0 with 7:51 left in the first quarter. CSUMB answered with a 5-point run in a one minute span capped by an old-fashioned 3-point play from Dews to close back within one.

Del Rosario found Diaz down low on back-to-back possessions and Diaz followed a Razo still with her sixth consecutive point to make it 12-5 at the halfway point of the quarter. The final five minutes proved to be low scoring and the teams traded buckets with Price hitting a jumper to trim the Penguins lead to 18-16 heading to the second. 

The Otters grabbed the momentum to begin the second quarter Dews finishing a 6-point run with a jumper in the paint to give CSUMB its first lead at 22-20 with 6:17 left in the half. Diaz quickly answered with a layup through contact and made the ensuing free throw to give Dominican the lead back and spark a 7-0 run. The Penguins maintained a two-possession lead for the remainder of the half as Razo connected on a short jumper with 25 seconds left in the half for the 35-31 lead at the break.

Diaz and del Rosario connected once again to start the second half to increase the lead to eight in the first two minutes. After Dews cut the lead to 40-36 with a 3-pointer, del Rosario answered on the other end with Dominican's first make behind the arc with six minutes remaining in the third and unseal the hoop for other shooters. Razo and Scott each hit 3-pointers to squash small runs by CSUMB and the Penguins took a 56-52 lead into the final quarter.

Price opened the fourth with a 3-pointer to close the lead to 56-55, but Diaz answered again with a hoop and harm to push the lead back to four. The trend continued as the Otters cut the lead to one and Scott answered on the other end with a corner 3 to push the lead back to two possessions. Del Rosario capped a 6-1 run by Dominican with a jumper in the paint to push the lead to nine with 4:14 remaining and give the Penguins some breathing room in a tight contest. It was all downhill from there as CSUMB was unable to get any closer than seven in the final minutes.

Dominican will get the week off before returning to the court for an exhibition Saturday, Dec. 29, at UC Davis at 2 p.m. PST. Live stats and video will be available online.