SAN DIEGO – Dominican women's basketball fell 76-71 to Point Loma Saturday afternoon at Golden Gymnasium.

Kaylyn Buchanon led the Penguins (6-1, 0-1 PacWest) with 15 points, eight rebounds, five assists and three steals. Keyonee Neal added a team-high 18 points to go with six boards, while Alyssa Alvarado finished with 15 points and two steals. Izzy Navarro finished with a game-high 19 points to go with nine assists and seven rebounds for the Sea Lions (8-2, 4-0 PacWest). Point Loma was efficient from the field hitting 54.1% of their shots and 30% from behind the arc.

The game was a seesaw from the beginning as the teams traded buckets for the first five minutes. Alvarado ducked into the lane and laid it in with Mahliya Wilson following up with a layup on the next possession to give Dominican the first two possession lead of the game at 13-9 with 4:25 remaining. Jocelyn Pascual found Cassidy Bartoloto for a pull up jumper before knocking down a shot from behind the arc to give the Sea Lions a 16-13 lead. Dominican scored the next four unanswered to retake a 1-point lead as Janiya Sawyer laid it in.

PLNU retook the lead before the second quarter, but Alvarado knocked down a 3-pointer from the top of the arc to put the Penguins back in front. Wilson and Buchanon used their speed to get to the rim for another 4-point Penguin burst to push the lead to three with 6:44 remaining until the break. Neal put a defender in the spin cycle before connecting on a jumper to take a 28-24 lead, but Navarro converted the old-fashioned 3-point play to cut it back to one at the midway point. The teams continued to go shot-for-shot down the stretch with Maddie Mersch able to secure an errant pass with defenders now out of position and laid it in for the 36-35 PLNU lead at the break.

The Sea Lions got off to a strong start in the second half with four unanswered points to build its largest lead of the game yet at five points and looked to add to it after a turnover, but Wilson swiped the ball and took it the other way to steady the ship for Dominican. After forcing PLNU into a trap on the baseline to force another turnover, Buchanon drove to the hoop for an uncontested layup to cut the deficit back to one but Navarro knocked down a 3-pointer to push the lead back to two possessions. Maddie Morrow and Emma Sales hit back-to-back 3-pointers to push the lead to six at the midway point of the third. PLNU was able to hang onto that margin down the stretch taking a 59-54 lead into the final period of play.

The Penguins went cold to start the fourth quarter while the Sea Lions seemingly could not miss as they extended their lead to 14 points at 68-54. Alvarado drove to the right side of the paint for a layup and Buchanon hit a step-back 3-pointer to cut the PLNU lead back to single digits with 6:36 left in the game. Buchanon ended the 8-0 run with another driving layup to bring the Penguins back within two possessions trailing 68-62 with 4:46 remaining. Ruby Vlahov had a pair of layups to get PLNU expanding the lead again as a 6-0 run made it 76-65 with two minutes left. Neal drove the lane for two and Alvarado came around a screen and knocked down a 3-pointer to trim the lead to five with 45 seconds left as Dominican tried to make an improbable comeback. The Penguins got the steal with 15 seconds left but Alvarado's 3-point attempt was long and PLNU held on for the victory.

The Penguins will be back in action Monday as it takes on Concordia University Irvine at 1 p.m. PST at CU Arena.