San Rafael, CALIF. – Dominican University of California (13-8, 11-3) got itself back on track by catapulting itself past the University of Hawaii at Hilo (7-12, 4-9) with a 67-54 victory in the Conlan Center.

Freshman Keyonee Neal earned her second double-double in the last week with a 26 point, 10 rebound performance while also adding four blocks. Redshirt senior Brittney Cedeno notched 13 points and nine rebounds, adding a trio of steals.

Neal buried a turnaround jumped just over two minutes into the matchup after being dished a pass by Cedeno in the paint to give Dominican a lead it never lost for the remainder of the contest. Neal tallied another basket on the next possession to set Dominican on a quick 6-0 after junior Jenna Duley and Cedeno both added a pair of buckets, extending the Dominican lead. Senior Maiya Flores earned her first bucket after Hilo snapped the streak, a corner-3 that put Dominican up 13-6 partway through the first half before graduate student Abreanna Lake juked between a slew of defenders while also battling the out of bounds line before creating enough space to lay the ball in while taking a foul, later earning a 3-point play from the foul line to mark Dominican's last bucket of the frame as Dominican led 20-12 after one quarter of action.

Cedeno welcomed the teams back to the floor with a deep three that felt nothing but twine en route to extending Dominican's lead to 11 before Hilo added a midrange jumper moments after. The teams traded baskets over the ensuing five minutes as the Vulcans found themselves unable to make a large dent in their deficit with San Juan making sure that proved true after hitting a corner-3 to put Dominican back up double-digits. Cedeno would eventually do the half's final damage from the foul stripe with time winding down to help her squad take a 40-28 lead into the locker rooms.

Neal and Hilo's Mandi Kawaha traded layups to start the second half before Neal added another on the Penguins possession that followed. Dominican's largest lead of the contest came minutes later after a successful Cedeno layup but the home side up 50-33 with 4:32 remaining in the half. The Vulcans used the remainder of the half to chop down the Dominican advantage, coming as close as eight points before Amoroso and Neal snatched momentum back into the hands of the Penguins to give the home team a 54-43 lead heading into the final frame.

Hilo again found itself unable to find any meaningful footing in its hopeful march towards the Dominican lead as another Flores 3-pointer preceded a Neal layup that meant a larger hill to climb for the visitors. The pattern of inching over the double-digit deficit margin continued as the visitors again found themselves down nine, but the other pattern of Dominican immediately answering also continued after Neal hit a midrange jumper just 16 seconds later before the Penguins earned the eventual 67-54 win over the Vulcans.