SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – Dominican women's basketball hung on for a 57-48 victory in a hard fought defensive game against Fresno Pacific on Thursday night at the Conlan Recreation Center.
Alaiyah San Juan led the Penguins (13-9, 7-4 PacWest) with 12 points and five steals.
Taylor Linzie fell just shy of a double-double scoring eight points to go with a career-high 21 rebounds. Jasmine Heu led the Sunbirds (9-10, 5-7 PacWest) with 10 points, four steals and four rebounds.
The first quarter was a contest of defensive wills as the teams looked for openings on the offensive side of the court. After conceding the first basket of the game, Dominican scored the next seven highlighted by
Taylor Linzie finishing through contact off an offensive rebound for an old-fashioned 3-point play to lead 7-2 heading into the final four minutes. The teams traded points for much of the final four minutes, but
Kaylyn Buchanon-Lamb split an attempted trap at halfcourt and drove to the basket to lay the ball in at the buzzer to push the Penguins in front 15-8 heading into the second quarter.
The Penguins kept the momentum going as
Alyssa Alvarado knocked down a short jumper with
Isobel Crosswhite and
Adia Walker adding a pair of layups. Alvarado then knocked down a 3-pointer to cap the 11-0 run and give Dominican the 24-8 lead with 7:37 left in the half. FPU finally found a rhythm on offense reeling off eight unanswered with Jayla Green banking home a 3-pointer from the right elbow to close the Sunbirds' deficit to eight with five minutes left in the half. San Juan helped the Penguins finish strong as she knocked down a jumper off an inbound before
Taylor Linzie found Abigail Cooper on the block for a layup through contact to push the lead back to 14 with under a minute in the half after the 3-point play. After a pair of defensive stops, San Juan found a crease in the defense and ducked into the lane knocking down a floater with four seconds on the clock to send Dominican into the half leading 35-19.
The Penguins offense slowed in the second half and the Sunbirds surged early as a Lydia Manu 3-pointer cut the deficit down to 11 before Cooper and Linzie made a pair of short jumpers to push the lead to 39-24 with 6:43 left in the third. Amoroso knocked down a 3-pointer off a dish from Cooper and San Juan hit a midrange jumper to push the lead to a game-high 18 at 44-26. While the teams mostly traded baskets, FPU was able to start cutting into the lead slowly with Breanna Hurt laying it in with 25 seconds left in the quarter to bring the deficit down to 12 heading into the fourth.
Dominican maintained its double-digit lead until Anisa Rillo connected from the charity stripe with Manu adding a jumper after a turnover to get the Sunbirds back within seven at 49-42 with 5:29 remaining. Heu hit a 3-pointer in transition with under a minute left to pull FPU back within two possessions at 53-48, but San Juan knocked down all four of her attempts from the free-throw line to seal the victory.
The Penguins will have a week before heading to Hawaii for a pair of games beginning with Chaminade on Thursday at McCabe Gymnasium with tipoff set for 5:30 p.m. HST.
