VALLEJO, Calif. – Dominican women's basketball was all gas and no brakes as it blew by Cal Maritime 79-50 Monday evening at the PEAC Main Gym. 

Alyssa Alvarado led the way for the Penguins with a game and career-high 16 points for the Penguins (6-5) while Abby Cooper added 13 points and eight rebounds. Jaz Novelli finished with 11 points to lead the Keelhaulers (2-6). Dominican dominated the glass collecting 56 rebounds while Cal Maritime managed just 29.

The Penguins were on fire to start the game as Alaiyah San Juan knocked down a 3-pointer with three other teammates scoring a bucket and they found themselves leading 10-0 before missing a shot on the offensive end. Abby Cooper laid the ball in after a pass in transition from Alex Salise to end the 16-0 run with Cooper accounting for six points in the opening four minutes of play. Dominican traded points with the Keelhaulers to end the opening period of play taking a 25-9 lead into the second.

Alvarado came off the bench and through gasoline onto an already hot offense as she knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers followed by a pair of layups to extend the lead to 35-12 with 6:38 remaining in the half. The Penguins extended their lead by attacking the paint and heading to the free-throw line as they outscored Cal Maritime 15-3 heading to the final minute of play. The Keelhaulers tried to stop the runaway but every time they scored Dominican answered with Alvarado beating the buzzer on a layup to send the Penguins into the half leading 44-16.

Cal Maritime opened the second half with three consecutive makes behind the arc to trim its deficit to 19 with 7:45 left in the third quarter. Adia Walker made a midrange jumper and Taylor Linzie laid it in for two more while adding a pair of makes from the charity stripe to extend the Dominican lead back to 50-25 in less than two minutes of additional game time. The teams traded points but San Juan connected on a jumper and Cooper added a layup for a quick burst in the final minutes of the quarter to extend the lead to 27 heading to the final period of play. 

Alvarado opened the scoring in the fourth with a layup before finding Julianne Cotterill in space for a short jumper to push the lead to 67-36 in the first minute. Cotterill added a layup two minutes later to give the Penguins their largest lead of the game of 33 points and it was all downhill from there as the bench never let the Keelhaulers closer than 26 points over the final seven minutes of play.

Dominican will begin conference play Thursday as it hosts Point Loma Nazarene University at 5:30 p.m. PST at the Conlan Center