FRESNO, Calif. – Sophomore guard
Julia Razo returned from an ankle injury in a big way to lead Dominican women's basketball to an 85-61 victory Tuesday night over Fresno Pacific University at the Special Events Center.
Razo finished with a career-high 30 points on 9-for-12 shooting from the field and 6-for-7 from behind the arc for the Penguins (12-2, 9-1 PacWest). Senior forward
Natalie Diaz added a double-double of 23 points and 12 rebounds, while junior guard
Vanessa Cruz added 12 points and six assists off the bench.
Cassie Pisik led the Sunbirds (11-5, 7-3 PacWest) with 14 points and nine rebounds, while Jessica Malzarte added 14 points. Dominican held Fresno Pacific to 27.5 percent shooting from the field and 26.7 percent from behind the arc. The Penguins knocked down 40.8 percent of their field goal attempts and was 50 percent on 3-pointers.
Dominican started strong as
Marisa Mondave stole the ball away at one end and Diaz connected on a 3-pointer on the other to spark a 7-2 run to open the game. The teams traded buckets for the next five minutes until the Penguins aggressive play earned a pair of free-throw makes by Diaz and
Anjelica Collins to extend the lead to 21-12 heading to the second.
Razo started the new period with a pair of makes from the charity stripe before sinking a 3-pointer to cap off the 9-point run and give Dominican the 14 point lead. Diaz scored five unanswered to push the lead to 17 with 6:16 left on the clock and the lead would grow to as many as 19-points on 3-pointers from Diaz and Razo. The Penguins headed to the locker room with the 43-28 lead with Razo a perfect 5-for-5 from the field and 2-for-2 from the free-throw line for 15 first-half points.
The Sunbirds showed some life as they rolled over some late momentum into the second half as Pisik cut the lead to 11 with a layup in the first three minutes. Cruz provided the response with a pair of driving layups to extend the lead to 49-32 for the Penguins just one minute later. Razo then led a 13-2 run with seven points as Dominican pulled away to a 24-point lead to end the third.
Dominican continued its hot shooting as its lead reached 30-points twice in the fourth quarter and the Penguins cruised to the victory.
Dominican will return home to host Academy of Art at 5:30 p.m. PST Thursday as it celebrates NBBA Night. NBBA players in the eighth grade and younger get in free to the game with live stats and video will be available online for the fans at home.
