HONOLULU – Dominican women's basketball used a strong middle 20 minutes to pull away for a 64-43 victory Thursday evening over Chaminade at The Shark Tank.
 
Abby Cooper led the way with 16 points and five rebounds, while Taylor Linzie finished with a double-double of 11 points and 14 rebounds for the Penguins (14-9, 8-4 PacWest). Morgan Escobedo led the Silverswords (6-15, 5-10 PacWest) with seven points and nine rebounds. Dominican forced 24 turnovers on the game as its defense frustrated Chaminade all night.
 
After falling behind early, Cooper scored back-to-back layups to spark the Penguins offense on an 8-0 run to take an 11-7 lead with 4:53 remaining in the opening period. The Silverswords closed back within one on a 3-pointer by Julien Parado, but Dominican's defense held Chaminade scoreless over the last three minutes of the quarter. Dominican scored six points to end the frame with Isobel Crosswhite finding the bottom of the net on a midrange jumper to push the lead to 21-12 heading to the second.
 
Alyssa Alvarado connected on a short jumper to extend the run to 8-0 to start the quarter, but the offenses of both teams went four minutes without scoring as the defenses reigned. Dezaray Carter halted the Penguins run with a layup but Alvarado connected on a 3-pointer on the other end to push the lead to double-digits for the first time at 24-14 with 5:38 left in the half. Andraya Perez knocked down a deep three from the left elbow off an assist from Linzie to spark another 8-0 run with Linzie scoring the last five points of the burst to push the lead to 32-16 with 2:05 left in the second quarter. The Silverswords trimmed the Penguins lead back to 12 briefly on a 3-pointer from Selena Buttery, but Alaiyah San Juan knocked down a pair of shots from the charity stripe to take the 34-20 lead into the locker room.
 
Adia Walker opened the second half with a layup before San Juan moved up the floor quickly in transition for a layup on the next possession to push the run to 6-0 and extending the lead to 18. Cooper leaked out after a Chaminade make and San Juan found her ahead of the pack for an easy layup before Cooper took a turn on the passing end feeding Linzie in the paint for another layup to extend the lead to 42-22 with 5:13 remaining. Dominican scored the final six points of the period with Perez finding Alvarado for a transition layup to make it 50-26 heading to the final period.
 
The Silverswords tried to claw their way back into the game getting as close as 14 on a layup by Escobedo with 5:39 remaining but Linzie found Cooper behind the arc for a 3-pointer on the Penguins next trip down the floor to end their momentum. The lead continued to build as Kaylyn Buchanon-Lamb ended the 10-1 run with a 3-pointer to push the lead to 23 as the Penguins cruised to the victory.   


Dominican will conclude its Hawaiian road trip Saturday as it takes on Hawai'i Pacific at 4:30 p.m. HST back at The Shark Tank.