SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – It was the worst of halves, it was the best of halves and Dominican women's basketball pulled away for a 76-64 victory Thursday afternoon over Jessup at the Conlan Recreation Center.

Janiya Sawyer broke out for a career-high 20 points to go with five rebounds to lead the Penguins (7-2, 1-2 PacWest), while Julianne Cotterill came off the bench and added a double-double of 10 points and 13 rebounds. Claudia Jimenez paced the Warriors (2-8, 0-4 PacWest) with 18 points with Amari Guiton chipping in 13 points to go with eight rebounds and four blocks. Jessup was brilliant in the first half shooting 51.6% from the field, but fell off in the second half shooting 26.3%. Dominican was the reverse shooting a dismal 27.9% in the first 20 minutes and then a scorching 52.8% in the last 20 to pull out the comeback.

The Penguins found themselves staring down a 15-point deficit after Guiton opened the second half with an old-fashioned 3-point play, but Keyonee Neal hit the first 3-pointer of the game for Dominican from the right wing and seemingly lifted the lid off the basket. Sawyer converted a 3-point play less than a minute later and the Penguins found themselves down by single-digits for the first time since the first quarter with 8:20 on the third-quarter clock. The teams traded baskets for much of the next five minutes until Mahliya Wilson slipped down the lane for two and Sawyer swiped the ball and threw it ahead to Aryn Bright to bring Dominican's deficit to 49-43 with 3:19 remaining. The Penguins had one last burst as Bright gathered an offensive board and put back before a turnover on the ensuing inbounds gave the ball back to Dominican and Sawyer made the off-balance shot to cut the deficit to four heading into the final 10 minutes of the game.

Neal knocked down a 3-pointer from nearly the same spot as her first to pull the Penguins back within one and they tied the game at 55-55 as Sawyer connected from the charity stripe. Dominican seemed to be playing NBA Jam as every off balance shot and 3-pointer scorched the net as the run went to 19-0 with Sawyer fittingly connecting on the final shot of the run to make it 66-55 with five minutes left on the clock. It was all downhill from there as Dominican brought in its bench to finish off the game.

The teams opened the game trading the first 10 points with the Warriors taking over from there behind Giselle Dogan who came off the bench and scored 10 points and led a 13-2 run that gave them the 18-7 lead with under a minute to play. Guiton converted a 3-point play to end the period and Jessup led by 14 heading into the second quarter. The Warriors largest lead came with 8:06 remaining in the second quarter as Jimenez hit a 3-pointer to make it 30-13. Cotterill sparked a 6-point burst to trim the deficit to 11, but the Penguins could get no closer the remainder of the half.

Dominican will hit the road for their final game of the calendar year against Menlo on Sunday at Haynes-Prim Pavilion.