HONOLULU – Dominican women's basketball never trailed in a 71-53 victory Monday night over Chaminade at McCabe Gymnasium.

Jerusha Paine led the Penguins (6-9, 3-6 PacWest) with 36 points to increase her NCAA Division II leading average to 26.2 points per game while adding eight rebounds. Paine also set a new Dominican single-game record after going 14-for-14 from the free-throw line, besting Marisa Mondave's 10-for-10 performance at Hawai'i Pacific last season. Sierra Shackelford saw her first significant minutes of the year and responded with a career-high 12 points on 4-for-5 shooting from beyond the arc for Dominican.

Destiny Castro led the Silverswords (3-13, 3-7 PacWest) with a double-double of 13 points and 13 rebounds, but was held largely in check on the offensive end shooting 38.5% from the field. Breann Nueku chipped in 15 points and six rebounds for Chaminade.

Jordan Charlton got the Penguins off to a quick start as she drained the first 3-pointer of the game and Paine knocked down a pair of long jumpers to give them a 7-0 lead in the first 2:30 of the game. Castro highlighted the Silversword comeback as she swooped down the lane and somehow laid it in off the glass while off balance as they cut the deficit to three at the halfway mark. Paine pounded away inside scoring the next six points for Dominican to push the lead to nine two minutes later and the Penguins took a 21-13 lead into the second quarter.

The teams traded points to open the period and Sydney Larocca found Paine on a backdoor cut for a layup to push the Dominican lead to double digits at 32-22 with six minutes left in the half. Paine then battled through a crowd for another layup to push the lead to 12 and the teams traded points for most of the final five minutes. The Penguins led 36-23 as the teams headed into the break.

As Paine drew the attention of several defenders in the post, Dominican spread the ball around to Larocca, Nicole Gleeson and Jessica Armstrong on backdoor cuts to push the lead to 19 and force a Chaminade timeout. Paine laid it off the glass after the timeout and knocked down two free throws to extend the lead to 50-27 with four minutes left in the quarter. The Silverswords slowly cut into the lead and Castro knocked down an elbow 3-pointer to make it 51-36 with under a minute remaining, but Paine drove down the lane and laid it off the glass before the buzzer to push the lead back to 17 heading to the fourth.

After Shackelford knocked down her third 3-pointer of the game from the left corner to extend the lead to 22, Chaminade took advantage of several Dominican turnovers and Castro capped the quick 7-0 run with a pull-up 3-pointer from 25-feet. The Penguins went right back to their bread-and-butter as they put the ball inside to Paine who capitalized with four quick points to put a halt to the momentum.

Dominican will return home Friday to take on Academy of Art at 5:30 p.m. PST at the Conlan Center. Live video and stats will be available online.