A historic season for the Dominican women's basketball season came to grinding and unexpected halt on Friday in the semifinals of the Pacific West Conference Tournament.

Playing in front of the largest crowd of the season in a tournament they were hosting for the first time, the second-seeded Penguins could never recover from an early double-digit deficit and fell to third-seeded Hawai'i Pacific 84-66 at the Conlan Center. HPU (22-8) advances to the PacWest championship game against top-seeded Azusa Pacific while Dominican hopes for an at-large berth in the NCAA Div. II West Regionals after winning 21 games this season, the most by the Penguins in 14 years.

"We've been working for this moment for four years," said senior Natalie Diaz, who led the Penguins with 25 points and a game-high 12 rebounds, her 10th double-double of the season. "It's an honor to play at home in front of our home crowd and fight until the end."

The beginning was an absolute blast. The Penguins were pleasantly surprised by the support they received from Penguins fans, perhaps the largest crowd to attend a women's basketball game in the Conlan Center during its nine years in NCAA Div. II.

"It was a great atmosphere," said Dominican coach Tim LaKose. "It's the biggest game we've been a part of since we've been here. The ovation they gave the players, especially our seniors and Nat, before the game, I got choked up. That was pretty cool."

Unfortunately for the Penguins, the visiting Sharks, with the PacWest's best defensive team, made the game difficult for Dominican, which had too many turnovers and too many lapses. After averaging a conference low 13 turnovers per game during the season, the Penguins committed eight turnovers in the opening quarter alone.

HPU, meanwhile, took advantage of the Dominican's offensive woes. While Dominican went almost six minutes without a field goal, HPU's Breanna Mackenzie scored seven points in a 13-1 run by the Sharks that built HPU's lead to 18 points, 38-20, with six minutes remaining in the first half.

Mackenzie, the Sharks' leading scorer, had struggled this season in the two previous games against Dominican – both Penguins' wins. Plagued by foul trouble, she scored only 20 points on 8-of-24 shooting and played just 39 minutes in those two games.

But in the semifinal game on Friday Mackenzie scored a game-high 27 points in 35 minutes on 10-of-25 shooting and had only one personal foul.

Still, Dominican had a couple of chances to battle back into contention. The Penguins attempted 11 free throws in the second period, making six. Starting with a Diaz basket, Dominican went on a 7-0 run as Marisa Mondave fed Alanna Scott for a basket then Mondave netted her third 3-pointer of the half as the Penguins closed to within six points, 44-38, with 1:52 left in the second period. But they missed a chance to get closer as Diaz was called for a charging foul then missed two foul shots and Dominican had to settle for an eight-point deficit, 46-38, at half.

The Penguins' 11 first-half turnovers helped HPU attempt 15 more field goals, including 11 more 3-point shots in the opening 20 minutes.

Diaz picked up her third foul seven seconds into the second half, again on a charging call, then her fourth with 5:43 left in the third period. In between, the Sharks expanded their lead to 16, 55-39, before Dominican recorded its field goal of the quarter, on a Diaz basket, with 3:55 to play. That ended another streak of six minutes without a field goal with the Penguins missing 13 consecutive shots during the scoring drought.

But Dominican opened the fourth period with back-to-back three-pointers by Mondave and Scott (on an assist by Diaz) to give the Penguins renewed hope. Suddenly trailing by only five points and with possession of the ball and an opportunity to cut HPU's lead to three or two points with eight minutes to play, another loose ball turnover (one of 16 by DU in game) thwarted a comeback.

"We were finally getting some stops and scores and getting some rebounds and transitioning those into some layups and some threes and some and-ones and we didn't turn the ball over," LaKose said. "If we do that consistently, we get the W. We made that run and HPU responded."

The Sharks went on a 15-6 run to extend their lead to 14 when Diaz fouled out of the game with 3:27 to play. Unless the Penguins receive an at-large bid to the West Regionals, Diaz finished her college career with 1,910 points, the most points in Dominican's women's basketball history.

"Words cannot describe what Nat has done for the program," LaKose said. "These seniors – Nat, Alanna and Anjelica Collins -- together have just taken us to whole another level."

Mondave, a junior, scored 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting (4-of-7 from 3-point range) but she was about the only Penguins player who didn't have an off night. Scott finished with 16 points on 6-of-15 shooting. Hawai'i Pacific, the PacWest's top defensive rebounding team, outhustled the Penguins for 17 offensive rebounds and, combined with Dominican's 16 turnovers, the Sharks managed to take 25 more shots and 16 more 3-point shots in the game than the Penguins, who also missed 10 of 25 free throws.

LaKose said the Sharks were simply more consistent than the Penguins.

"That's been on our ongoing theme," LaKose said. "Consistency for us is taking care of the ball and, when we do that, we're usually in pretty good shape."

Had they won, the Penguins felt they would have been sitting pretty for an NCAA West Region berth, which would be the first in Dominican basketball history. They have to wait until the field is officially set on Sunday.

It's not the way the Penguins want to end the season.

"It's been fun just working together," said Scott, who is the best 3-point shooter percentage-wise in Penguins' history.  "We got the most wins in the school's NCAA Div. II history. We know we created some history here and we're OK with that even if we don't get another game. We made our mark and no one can take us from that."

Scott, Collins and Diaz combined for a 73-41 record in their four years as Penguins.'

"It's been truly incredible to watch this program, especially Coach Tim and Coach PhyNique (Allen). They've done an incredible job," Diaz said. "It's been historic."