HONOLULU – Dominican women's basketball overcame a slow start to defeat Chaminade 72-50 Saturday afternoon at McCabe Gym.
 
Riley Friauf led the Penguins (8-7, 5-3 PacWest) with dominating double-double of 19 points and 18 rebounds. Errayanna Hatfield added a career-high 13 rebounds with Alex Salise dishing out a career-high seven assists, while Jordan Charlton knocked down all three of her shots behind the arc on her way to tying her career-high of 15 points. Dallas Martinez led the Silverswords(1-8, 0-5 PacWest) with 15 points while Michaella Dean collected 12 rebounds.
 
"Chaminade jumped on us early today but we were able to battle back into it behind our defense," head coach Tim LaKose said. "Riley and Errayanna did a great job on the boards helping limit Chaminade to one shot [on offensive possessions] and that got our offense going. Glad we got the 'W' and I felt we played much better after that first quarter. Hopefully we will take some of this momentum going into Hilo."
 
Chaminade got off to a strong start to the game as it crashed the offensive glass for six second chance points in the first three minutes to take a 6-2 lead. After Jordan Charlton knocked down a corner 3-pointer to close the gap to one, Sasha Phillips took control scoring six points in a 9-0 run that pushed the Silversword lead to 15-5 with under two minutes to play in the quarter. Dominican finally found some offensive momentum as Ysobelle Eustaquio crashed the glass for two offensive rebounds in the final 20 seconds before converting a layup with five seconds remaining to make it 15-8 heading to the second quarter. 
 
Friauf finally broke out of the offensive doldrums with a midrange jumper to open the scoring scoring in the second period and then followed up cutting to the basket for two more. Salise then picked up the baton and scored the next five points for the Penguins draining a 3-pointer to tie the game at 17. Friauf once again drove the lane for a layup to cap the 14-2 run and give Dominican its first lead of the game at 19-17 with seven minutes left in the half. After swapping baskets and leads for the next two minutes Friauf scored four straight points to spark a 10-point run capped by Alaiyah San Juan's pull up jumper to push their lead to 31-23 as they would not relinquish the lead over the final 25 minutes of the game. 
 
Hatfield led the charge out of the locker room hitting a jump from the free-throw line before driving the lane for two more to push the lead to 38-27 with 7:47 left in the third quarter. Friauf found a cutting Salise for a layup to spark an 8-0 run highlighted as well by San Juan knocking down a 3-pointer in transition from the top of the key that helped push the lead to 17 with 3:23 left in the period as the Penguins continued to maintain control of the game. 
 
Salise drove to the hoop for a layup and then found Charlton in transition for a 3-pointer from the elbow that helped extend the lead over 20 at 57-35 with 1:35 left in the quarter. Charlton continued to shoot well scoring the final seven points of the quarter for the Dominican and it took a 61-38 lead into the final period of play. The final gave the Penguins an opportunity to get several bench players involved as they maintained their third quarter lead as the teams traded points for most of the period.
 
Dominican will conclude its Hawaiian trip against the University of Hawaii at Hilo on Monday at 5 p.m. HST.