SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – Senior guard Alanna Scott scored a career-high 32 points to lead Dominican women's basketball to a 90-56 victory Thursday night over Academy of Art at the Conlan Center.

"I was happy with how we finished round one [of PacWest play]," head coach Tim LaKose said. "I think we are getting better each game. Alanna played particularly well tonight. We have had a lot of different players step up on different nights. We are looking to continue to improve individually and as a team as we head to the second half of PacWest play."

Scott also finished with seven rebounds, five steals and two blocks, while senior forward Natalie Diaz added 13 points, six assists and two blocks for the Penguins (13-2, 10-1 PacWest). Junior guard Vanessa Cruz nearly tallied a triple-double with 10 rebounds, six assists and six steals. 

Chanel Stuart led the Urban Knights (2-11, 1-9 PacWest) with 20 points and eight rebounds. Ines Medina chipped in a double-double of 11 points and 16 rebounds. Dominican held ArtU to 33.3 percent shooting from the field and 19 percent from behind the arc, while knocking down 44.9 percent from the field and 48.1 percent from 3-point range on the offensive end.

Both teams got off to a slow start and Medina gave the Urban Knights the 6-5 lead on 3-pointer from the top of the arc with 4:10 left on the first-period clock. It was all Penguins from that point as Anjelica Collins hit a 3-pointer from the corner to spark 14-0 run to end the quarter and send Dominican to the second leading 19-6.

Scott took over to start the second period knocking down a 3-pointer and, after a Diaz steal, a fastbreak layup. Diaz knocked down a 3-pointer of her own after a turnover and Scott followed with her second of the period to extend the Penguin lead to 24 with 6:45 left in the half. Meghan Jefferson answered with a personal 6-0 run for ArtU to close the gap to 30-12 at the halfway point of the quarter. 

Scott put an end to the run with a 3-pointer after a steal by Collins and Sydney Larocca stole the ball and took it to the rim for two more to extend the lead back to 23. The teams traded points for the final four minutes of the period and Dominican took a 39-17 lead into the locker room. 

The Penguins came out of the break on fire tallying four steals to power a 10-3 run to make it 49-20 in the first two minutes. Scott continued her hot shooting with another 3-pointer to extend the lead to 30 a minute later and the lead would grow to as many as 34 points in the period. 

The lead would grow to as many as 39 points in the fourth quarter as Dominican got several bench players quality minutes.

The Penguins will head to Southern California next week as they take on Point Loma Nazarene University on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. PST. Live stats and video will be available online.