San Rafael, CALIF. – Dominican Women's basketball hosted Point Loma Thursday night for a crucial PacWest match-up with seeds for the conference tournament on the line. Perez, the junior from Stockton hit a step-back three at the buzzer in overtime to give the Penguins the 65 to 62 overtime victory. Dominican came in hot from the jump to win the tip-off. Point Loma initially led scoring, but the teams battled back and forth until a three from the right corner from
Jenna Duley landed the Penguins with their first lead at 5-4. The pressure was on as the Sea Lions responded with a pair of threes of their own. Again, attacking down the right side,
Adia Walker sunk another three to bring the score back within one at 14-13. Dominican used their momentum to take back the lead once more at 17-16 and close out quarter one.
The next quarter was a completely different story. The Penguins made necessary adjustments to their defense to lock up the Sea Lions, only allowing them to put up four points the whole quarter. On the attack, Dominican found close-range success and made a 13-4 run to force a Point Loma timeout with 2:15 to go. A foul at the buzzer gave Walker two shots which she nailed, giving her team the 34-20 lead to end the half.
The second half started rocky as the Penguins fell into old habits and let turnovers get the best of them. They were able to tack on 12 points in the third quarter, but the Sea Lions came back to score 22 and trailed 46-42 at the end of the third. As the final quarter began, Dominican felt the pressure, their lead had closed and Point Loma scored the first bucket to bring the score within two.
Olga Faasolo came in with a layup to push the lead, but the impending Sea Lions found their first lead since quarter one at 49-48. From this point, it was anyone's game. Duley made crucial steals to put the Penguins back on top 52-51 and forced a Point Loma timeout.
The Sea Lions scored a three which put them up 55-53, but with 21.9 seconds on the clock
Alaiyah San Juan tied it up at 55 apiece. The energy in the gym was electric as overtime began, both home and visitor stands were on max volume. With each team scoring points on their possession, it looked as though the fans were in store for another period. Then Duley came down the left side to sink a three and put Dominican up 62-60. The Sea Lions tied it up on their next possession, 62-62. With only 21.7 seconds to go, the Penguins had one final scoring attempt, San Juan passed off to Perez for a
buzzer-beating three to clinch a 65-62 victory.
Dominican will close out regular season play on Saturday, March 2nd at 1 p.m. as they host Biola for Senior Day!
