SAN RAFAEL, Calif.- Dominican women's basketball hosted No. 14 Azusa Pacific for a PacWest clash Saturday afternoon. Seniors Alaiyah San Juan and Mikayla Amoroso led the offense for the Pengs in this one both going for 13 points, but the Cougars would end up winning 84-77.

APU came out showing why they're a ranked team jumping out to a quick double-digit lead. Audrey Sayoc led APU in the first quarter as she was weaving in and out of the Pengs defense for easy layups. Dominican couldn't find their rhythm offensively to start as APU held them to 17% shooting in the first.

The beginning of the second quarter looked like it was going to be much of the same as Sayoc and teammate Amayah Kirkman made some tough buckets to open the quarter. Midway through the quarter the Cougars had jumped out to their biggest lead of the game, 22 points. This forced coach Tim LaKose to mix things up and switch his lineup, and it worked for the Pengs.
Senior Andraya Perez checked into the ballgame and instantly provided a spark for Dominican. Perez, who is known for being a long-range assassin, hit her first three-pointer within minutes of checking in. This shot led to a swing in momentum for the Penguins as their defense started to make things tough on the Cougars forcing back-to-back turnovers. Sophomore Adia Walker and Amoroso found some soft spots inside and capitalized finishing with strong buckets.

Perez and Walker led the furious comeback for the Pengs as the whole team was feeding off their energy. Perez couldn't be stopped in the second as she hit four three-pointers leading to a game high 12 points and none was bigger than the one she hit to close the half. Dominican had fought all the way back from a 22-point deficit to tie the game with 40 seconds left in the second. Alex Salise knew to find her teammate who was red hot, and that's what she did. Perez received the pass and chucked it up from behind the arc hitting nothing but net to give the Pengs the three-point lead heading into the lockers.

Dominican kept the pressure on the Cougars in the third quarter as they held the lead the entire quarter thanks in part to their senior leaders San Juan and Salise. Both guards showed their range hitting huge three-pointers while also bringing the energy on defense forcing a couple turnovers. Whenever APU thought they could go on a run and take the lead, it was either San Juan or Salise answering with a big bucket.

The Cougars would go on to win the fourth quarter as their defense locked up the Pengs in the final quarter. Click HERE for the penguin radio podcast. 

Dominican will be back on the court Saturday Dec. 14^th when they travel to Jessup at 12 p.m.