HILO, Hawai'i – Dominican women's basketball was unable to recover from a late first-half run by the University of Hawai'i at Hilo in an 80-65 loss Thursday at Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium.

Jerusha Paine led the Penguins (5-8, 2-5 PacWest) with 29 points and five rebounds. Marissa Mondave added a double-double of 18 points and 10 rebounds. Allie Navarette led the Vulcans (4-8, 3-5 PacWest) with 19 points and eight rebounds with Kim Schmelz chipping in 16 points.

The teams traded baskets throughout the first quarter with neither holding a lead larger than three. Dominican was able to take a late lead in the period as they aggressively attacked the basket with Brittney Cedeno and Paine knocking down four consecutive free throws to make it 18-17. The lead was short-lived as the Vulcans' Malia Lee drew a loose ball foul and knocked down a pair from the charity stripe to send them into the second with the 1-point advantage.

Mandi Kawaha helped Hilo to a 6-0 run to begin the second period as she made two acrobatic layups to push the lead to 25-18 with 8:11 until the half. Moments later, Jessica Armstrong and Paine each knocked down a pair of 17-foot jumpers to close the gap back to two as Dominican kept the game close. Schmelz bracketed a 3-pointer from Sara Shimizu with a pair of jumpers to push the Vulcans back ahead by its largest lead of the night at 36-27 with 2:12 remaining. Paine got Dominican back within five after a pair of layups, but Hilo scored the last five points of the half including a buzzer-beating jumper by Shimizu to make it 41-31 at the break.

The Vulcans pushed their run to 11-0 as they came out and scored the first six points of the second half to take a 47-31 lead. Paine continued to battle inside to try and keep the Penguins in it with four consecutive points, but Schmelz knocked in a 3-pointer to halt their momentum. Hilo extended its lead to as many as 21 and took a 66-48 lead into the final period.

Julia Razo scored the first five points of the fourth quarter as she knocked down a 3-pointer before driving to the hoop for a layup to cut the lead to 13 and force a Vulcan timeout. Jordan Charlton was able to get her hand in between a handoff out of the timeout and laid it in on the other end to cut the deficit to 11, but Lee knocked down a 3-pointer to end the Dominican run. The Penguins were unable to get the lead back to single digits and the Vulcans held on for the victory.

Dominican will next head to the island of Oahu for two games beginning Saturday against Hawai'i Pacific at 1 p.m. HST at The Shark Tank. Live stats and video will be available online.