San Rafael, CALIF. -- Dominican University of California (3-7, 1-2) fell victim to an incredibly strong second half performance as Seattle Pacific University (5-3, 1-1) powered past the Penguins by a score of 63-35 after outscoring Dominican 45-9 in the final two frames.
Dominican's offense found the scoreboard early and often as the Penguins jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead behind baskets from freshman
Keyonee Neal and redshirt senior
Brittney Cedeno with the duo scoring all of the team's first eight points of the contest. Junior
Olga Faasolo added a pair of layups before graduate student
Jordan Charlton did the same to give Dominican a 12-2 advantage moments before a pair of Falcons' baskets led Dominican to call a timeout with a 14-8 score advantage with just shy of three minutes remaining in the first frame. Neither team tallied a basket of any form before the end of the quarter which meant Dominican entered the second stanza with a six-point lead.
The visitors quickly pulled within a basket behind a pair of early scores but back-to-back 3-pointers from sophomores
Alex Salise and
Alaiyah San Juan swiftly put Dominican back up by nine. One last late long ball courtesy of Cedeno gave Dominican a 26-18 as the Penguins defense clamped down on an offense that had been averaging 31.7 first half points prior to the evening's matchup.
The story of the second half would not match the first half tale of the tape as Dominican earned just three field goals in the final 20 minutes, none of which came in the third frame. Neal added a layup before draining a jumper from the top of the key while sophomore
Jazmine Barnes tallied a 3-pointer in the final quarter, but ultimately a 45-9 second half surge by the visiting Falcons spoiled the hopes of the home side as Dominican fell by a final score of 63-35.
Dominican will look to regroup as the squad looks for a quick turnaround during Wednesday's contest against Chaminade University at the Conlan Center.
