SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – Dominican women's basketball rode a strong defensive effort to a 63-52 victory over Jessup on Saturday afternoon at the Conlan Recreation Center.

Alaiyah San Juan finished with 17 points and eight rebounds to lead the Penguins (11-8, 5-3 PacWest), while Taylor Linzie recorded her second straight double-double with 12 points and 15 rebounds. Kayla Vieira and Tatiana Newsome each finished with 11 points and six rebounds with Vieira chipping in a block and two steals on her stat line. Dominican held Jessup to 30.2% shooting from the field and held the 49-41 edge on the boards to make the difference in the game.

The Warriors scored the first four points of the game after forcing several Penguin turnovers, but Abigail Cooper drove the lane for two before Alyssa Alvarado stole the ball and found Cooper driving for two more to tie the game with 7:27 left in the period. The teams continued to trade buckets until Mikayla Amoroso found Jazmine Barnes for a layup on a nice out of bounds play and Alex Salise drew a foul and converted on one of her attempts to give Dominican its first lead 11-10 heading into the second quarter. 

San Juan drove the lane for an acrobatic layup to start the second quarter and Linzie found Cooper in transition for two more as Dominican began to add to its lead. San Juan ended the 8-2 run to open the quarter as she went coast-to-coast grabbing a rebound and converting it into a layup on the other end to make it 19-12 with 5:51 left in the half. Jessup responded by scoring the next nine points with Natalie Moulos connecting on a midrange jumper to take the 21-19 lead two minutes later. The Penguins locked back in on defense holding the Warriors scoreless over the final three minutes and Alvarado found Linzie underneath the hoop for an easy layup to take the 23-21 lead into the locker room.

Alvarado opened the second half with a 3-pointer off an assist from San Juan to cap the 7-0 run. Jessup was able to slowly cut into the lead with Jacklyn Kulow knocking down a free throw to make it a two-point game with 3:17 remaining. San Juan drove the baseline and swung the ball back to the top of the arc for Amoroso who knocked down a 3-pointer to halt the momentum and Salise stole the ball and converted a putback layup on the other end to push the lead back to 38-31 less than a minute later.

Dominican took an eight point lead into the final period with Cooper finding San Juan on the left elbow for a 3-pointer before a free-throw by Linzie pushed the lead to double-digits for the first time with 8:26 remaining. The teams continued to trade baskets into the final minute when Newsome connected from deep before Moulos snuck out in transition for a fastbreak layup to cut the lead to 57-52 with 43 seconds remaining. The Warriors looked like they would continue to cut into the lead by forcing a turnover on the ensuing inbounds, but replay reversed the call and the Penguins were perfect from the free-throw line to close out the victory.

Dominican will head back on the road to take on Westmont Thursday at 5:30 p.m. PST at Murchison Gymnasium in Santa Barbara.