LA MIRADA, Calif. – Dominican women's basketball fell behind early and was unable to recover in a 70-58 loss Saturday afternoon to Biola at Chase Gymnasium.
Senior forward
Jerusha Paine led the Penguins (7-12, 4-9 PacWest) with a double-double of 19 points and 17 rebounds. Junior guard
Jessica Armstrong added 12 points and eight rebounds, while freshman guard
Brittney Cedeno chipped in 11 points, seven rebounds and five assists.
Stephanie Lee tormented the Dominican defense in the first half on her way to 15 points, while Aysia Johnson gave the Eagles (13-6, 9-4 PacWest) 17 points and eight rebounds to help them finish off the victory.
Dominican scored the opening four points of the game as they kept Biola off balance for the first three minutes of the game. Jazz Benn sparked the Eagles beginning on the defensive end as she stole the ball and Johnson knocked down a jumper to get them on the board. Lee came off the bench and gave Biola a spark from behind the arc as it extended the lead to 16-6 and then ended the quarter with a 4-point play to extend the lead to 11.
Lee continued her hot shooting knocking down a midrange jumper and another 3-pointer to take the 27-13 lead and force a Penguin timeout. Paine was finally able to get loose through constant double and triple teams to score four unanswered and close the gap to 10 with six minutes remaining. Dominican continued to feed the nation's leading scorer and she hit a short jumper and then found Armstrong for an open layup to cut the lead to 40-32 at the half.
The teams traded points for most of the third quarter with Madi Chang knocking down a 3-pointer with 2:08 remaining in the third quarter to push the Eagles lead to 53-41. Cedeno helped Dominican stay in it as she went on a personal 7-0 run with two 3-pointers to cut the lead back to single-digits at 63-54 with 2:35 remaining in the game. Dominican was unable to get the stops they needed in the final minutes and Biola held on for the victory.
The road-weary Penguins will finally return back to the Conlan Center for a four-game homestand beginning Saturday against Fresno Pacific at 2 p.m. PST. Live video and stats will be available online.
