San Rafael, CALIF. – Dominican University of California (13-9, 11-4) dropped a closely contested home contest by a score of 71-64 to Hawaii Pacific University (11-8, 9-3).

Redshirt senior Britney Cedeno another impressive stat line to her already illustrious resume, tallying a career-high 28 points while adding rebounds, an assist, a block and a steal. Freshman Keyonee Neal followed in similar fashion, adding her fifth 20-point game in the last 30 days by scoring exactly 20 points in addition to five rebounds, two assists and three blocks.

Neal earned Dominican's first six points of the afternoon as she went shot-for-shot with the entire HPU team. Cedeno added her fist bucket minutes later with a midrange jumper from the left side of the basket before Duley gave Dominican back the lead with a driving layup. Graduate student Abreanna Lake joined the party with just shy of four minutes remaining by corralling an offensive rebound before burying a short jumper off the glass that tied the game. The Lake bucket marked the last time Dominican would earn a basket in the opening frame as a 7-0 HPU run left the score reading 21-14 after the opening 10 minutes.

Dominican used the entirety of the second quarter to scratch and claw at the HPU lead after the Sharks went up nine. The Penguins twice found themselves down by a basket with the latter deficit coming after 3-pointer courtesy of sophomore Alaiyah San Juan that set the score at 26-23. Dominican mirrored the Sharks' actions from the first quarter as the ended the half on a 7-0 run with Cedeno putting the final touches on the streak at the buzzer with midrange floater as time expired to bring the score to 34-33 with the teams going their respective directions for half time.

Neal immediately grabbed the lead for Dominican off a layup that was made easy because of a picture-perfect Mikayla Amoroso assist. The teams played tug-o-war with the lead over the ensuing eight minutes with neither side leading by more than a single possession with the Sharks taking the eventual lead into the final frame after a late layup set the score to 49-48.

Dominican retook the lead minutes into the final quarter off an Olga Faasolo reverse layup, but the celebration was short lived due to a quick 5-0 Sharks run. HPU found itself up by as many as nine after a 3-pointer put what, at the time, seemed like the final touch that was needed for a Sharks victory. Cedeno had other plans as showcased by six-straight points in less than 50 seconds that brought her team back within three with each bucket being tallied as floating jumpers from within 15-feet of the rim. The squads traded 3-pointers late before Dominican was forced to foul down the stretch which led to the 71-64 victory for HPU.