Box Score HONOLULU – Dominican women's basketball was unable to keep pace with PacWest frontrunner Hawai'i Pacific in a 115-85 loss Saturday afternoon at The Shark Tank.

Jerusha Paine led the Penguins (5-9, 2-6 PacWest) with 29 points. Amy Baum led the Sharks (14-1, 9-0 PacWest) with a triple-double of 18 points, 11 rebounds and 13 assists. 

The Sharks and Penguins both relied on their defenses to start the game and Makenna Gambee gave HPU the 8-3 lead three minutes into the quarter. Marisa Mondave converted an old-fashioned 3-point play to stop the Shark momentum, but they held the lead for the next three minutes. Paine then hit a layup with contact and drained the free throw and Brittney Cedeno followed up by knocking home Dominican's first 3-pointer to give it the 14-12 lead with 3:41 left in the first. 

The teams traded leads and Mondave found Sydney Larocca cutting down the lane for two with 38 seconds remaining as the Penguins looked to take the lead into the second. Ally Bates collected an offensive rebound and made the putback to tie the game before the first quarter buzzer.

Starr Rivera began to heat up in the second period as she sparked a 6-0 run to begin the period with a pair of midrange jumpers to give HPU some breathing room. The Sharks forced several Penguin turnovers with Rivera, Alysha Marcucci and Theresa Spatzier all knocking down shots from behind the arc to build a 28-point lead with two minutes left in the half. Cedeno knocked down a 3-pointer of her own to briefly halt the momentum, but HPU took a 65-37 lead into the locker room.

Dominican was unable to recover the defense that kept the first quarter close as the Sharks dominated the third quarter and held a lead over 40 for much of the second half until slowing down in the fourth quarter.

The Penguins will return to the court Monday to finish their road trip at Chaminade at 5:30 p.m. HST at McCabe Gymnasium. Live stats and video will be available online.