ATHERTON, Calif. – Dominican women's basketball held off a fierce fourth-quarter comeback by Menlo to win 63-54 Saturday afternoon at Haynes-Prim Pavilion.
 
Abby Cooper led the way with 16 points and seven rebounds for the Penguins (8-8, 2-3 PacWest), while Alaiyah San Juan finished with 12 points and Taylor Linzie added 14 rebounds. The Oaks (5-6, 2-3 PacWest) were led by Jordyn Rosette's 14 points, seven rebounds and five blocks. Dominican's defense proved the pivotal factor as they held Menlo to 29.7% shooting from the field.
 
The defenses set the tone in the first quarter as points were difficult to come by for both teams. Dominican worked their offense through the paint as Linzie made back-to-back layups to start an 8-1 run that spanned nearly the length of the period. Cooper ended the run with a pair of layups of her own sending Dominican into the second period leading 10-7.
 
After Menlo closed the gap to one in the opening minutes Alex Salise drove into the lane for two and Alyssa Alvarado came off the bench and knocked down the first 3-pointer of the game for the Penguins to push the lead to 15-9 with 8:42 remaining in the half. The teams continued to trade buckets for the next four minutes until Alvarado knocked down a 3-pointer and then added a layup seconds later to push the lead to 10 with 3:05 left on the second-quarter clock. San Juan knocked down a 3-pointer to spark a final 7-0 run with Cooper finishing the quarter with a transition layup off a good feed from Adia Walker to send Dominican into the locker room leading 35-21.
 
The run continued into the third as Cooper began the way the previous half finished with a layup and San Juan knocked down her second shot behind the arc before Walker capped the run with a layup to push the lead to 42-21 in the first two minutes of the period. San Juan continued to find her stroke as her third 3-pointer sparked another 7-0 run that pushed the lead to 26 with 1:54 remaining in the third. The Oaks began to chip away at the lead as Laila Saenz laid it in for the final points of the quarter to cut their deficit to 51-32 heading to the fourth.
 
Dominican could not find the offensive firepower that created their big lead in the fourth quarter while Menlo finally found an offensive rhythm and the once large lead shrank to four heading into the final two minutes of the game. The Penguins tightened up their defense down the stretch and they were able to hit their free throws to fend off the run and take the victory into their holiday break.
 
These two teams will meet again to resume play after the holiday break with tip-off set for 1 p.m.  PST on Saturday, January 4 at the Conlan Center.