San Rafael, CALIF. – Freshman Keyonee Neal enjoyed a career evening in the Conlan Center as Dominican (3-6, 1-2) earned a 66-56 victory over Fresno Pacific University (4-5, 0-1) on Saturday. 
 
Fresno Pacific earned the opening bucket in the form of a Sara Lundqvist jumper that welcomed her team to the scoreboard. Redshirt senior Brittney Cedeno tallied her first steal of the game with an interception on her defensive end, then driving the lane and earning an open layup to put Dominican on the board. A Sunbirds' 3-pointer followed Neal's first basket of the game, all preceding a pair of Cedeno free throws that gave the Penguins a 6-5 advantage.
 
Neal snatched the ball out of the hands of a Sunbirds' attacker to force a jump ball with possession to Dominican's favor, then earning a pair of foul shots on the offensive side of the floor that eventually helped extend Dominican's lead by two. Cedeno later grabbed a ball that was tipped by San Juan at mid-court that led to Dominican's first long ball of the game courtesy of a sky-high bucket by sophomore Alex Salise that forced an FPU timeout with the score reading 10-5.
 
Freshman Amelia Brady swatted a Mason Rix close-range attempt with 3:27 remaining in the opening frame to keep the Dominican lead at five, but a Lydia Manu and-1 cut the lead to a single basket. Junior Olga Faasolo checked in for Dominican and made an immediate impact with her first bucket of the game moments later, then earning another bucket seconds later with a corner jumper. Salise combated an FPU basket as the teams traded scores down the stretch with Cedeno adding the finishing touches on a high-scoring first quarter as she drove left and sent a floater through the twine at the buzzer to set the score to 18-14 after the first frame.
 
Jenna Kurz earned the first basket of the second quarter with a jumper from the top of the key, a score that was quickly overshadowed by a tightly contested Faasolo and-1 as she drew contact before seeing success from the foul line. Faasolo saw more success from the line on the next trip down the floor, going 2-for-2 from the stripe to extend Dominican's lead to five.
 
Unselfish, smart play from Neal led to a Cedeno bucket as the duo found themselves on a 2-on-1 with Neal dishing the bucket to a completely unguarded Cedeno who earned her easiest bucket of the afternoon. Neal then watched her defender fly by after faking a shot to get the defender to jump, the dribbling to the basket with her guard still in midair as she earned herself an open layup that put Dominican up nine.
 
Alaiyah San Juan found her touch from 3-point land as she extended Dominican's lead to a dozen with just shy of four minutes remaining in the half. Faasola added to the onslaught with a pullup jumper from the top of the key, but FPU scoring down the stretch lessened the lead as Dominican went into halftime with a 40-33 lead.
 
FPU's Felicia Dourva tallied the first bucket of the second half as the teams struggled to score, but baskets on back-to-back-to-back-to-back flipped the script as the two teams went more than four minutes without scoring prior to finding their groves with the score now reading 46-37. Neal immediately took a Cedeno inbound pass to the bucket following a media timeout, preceding another Brady block that put the Penguins back on offense. Neal capitalized on the newfound possession with a pair of successful free throws with her team then earning another turnover on defense as an errant pass found the Sunbirds' bench, a play that ended with a San Juan midrange jumper. Cedeno added another bucket moments later to help catapult the Penguins to a 12-0 run that forced an FPU timeout as Dominican would, moments later, enjoy a 56-43 lead at the end of the third frame.
 
Graduate student Jordan Charlton buried a pair of foul shots with 4:30 remaining in the game as only one successful field goal was made by either side through the first 6:08 of the final frame before Neal earned a layup for Dominican. Salise tallied a pair of successful free throws to give Dominican a 63-50 advantage with two minutes remaining before a Rilo 3-pointer cut the lead to 10. Cedeno found a virtually wide-open Charlton as no FPU defenders were on her side of the half, giving Charlton more than enough time for the simple layup. FPU pressured to the final horn but Dominican calmly held its lead before eventually walking off the court with a 66-56 victory in-hand. 

Neal finished with a game-high 19 points, also adding seven rebounds, five steals and a pair of assists. Faasolo and Cedeno both finished with double-digits scoring 13 and 12, respectively, as Cedeno also enjoyed another double-double tallying 11 rebounds. 

Dominican now looks ahead to Monday when it plays host to Seattle Pacific University at 5:30 p.m. PST.