Box Score HONOLULU – Dominican women's basketball held off Hawai'i Pacific for a 56-48 victory Sunday evening at The Shark Tank.
 
Adia Walker led the Penguins (15-9, 9-4 PacWest) with 20 points, nine rebounds and two blocks, while Abby Cooper added 13 points and four boards. Lupe Vazquez led the offense for the Sharks (7-11, 3-8 PacWest) with 10 points, while Serenity Santos added six points and four steals.
 
Neither team could score in the opening three minutes of the game until Cooper leaked ahead of the pack in transition and converted on a contest layup to give Dominican the game's opening basket with 7:20 showing on the clock. After Taylor Linzie added a pair of free throws, Cooper once again worked inside the paint driving for a layup to take the 6-0 lead. The teams continued to trade baskets until Kaylyn Buchanon-Lamb found Walker for a 3-pointer to push the lead to 18-9 heading into the final minute of the quarter. The Sharks finally strung together consecutive buckets with Mary Kate King hitting a jumper at the buzzer to trim their deficit to 18-13 heading to the second.
 
Santos opened the second quarter with a 3-pointer for HPU to trim the deficit to two, but Walker laid it in and Cooper knocked down a floater to push the lead back to six with 6:42 remaining in the half. The Sharks cut the lead back to two as Megan Jones worked down low for a layup with under four minutes in the half. Dominican answered with the next four points capped by Jazmine Barnes who grabbed an offensive board and put it back to take the 26-20 lead with 2:42 remaining.  The pattern continued right up until the final seconds with Dominican pulling ahead by six on a driving layup from Alaiyah San Juan but Sarah Tait knocked down a 3-pointer from the left corner at the buzzer to trim the Penguin lead to 30-27 at the break.
 
Walker and Cooper scored the first two buckets of the second half for the Penguins to push the lead to 34-27 in the opening minutes of the half. After the Sharks once again pulled back within a possession, Mikayla Amoroso sank a shot from behind the arc to push the lead to 37-31 at the media timeout. The teams continued to trade baskets and Morgan Hawkins knocked home a pair of free throws in the closing seconds of the quarter to draw HPU back within a possession at 42-39 heading to the fourth.
 
Cooper started the scoring in the fourth quarter by knocking down a 3-pointer from the right corner as the Penguins continued to keep the small lead. Andraya Perez drove down the baseline and bounced a ball inside to Linzie for an easy layup that finally pushed the lead over six and Amoroso added a pair of makes from the charity stripe to take the first double-digit lead of the game at 51-41 with 3:42 left on the clock.
 
The Sharks battled back yet again as Alanna Roberts cut the lead to six with a layup with 2:55 remaining on the clock. After two scoreless minutes, Morgan Hawkins drew a foul and hit one of her free throws to take the Dominican lead down to 51-46. After Allison Ross stole the ball briefly on the ensuing play, San Juan swiped it right back and Walker knocked down one of her free throws to push the lead back to two possessions. Hawkins drilled a floater to get back within four and the Sharks forced yet another turnover, but Ella Berge was called for an illegal screen to give the ball back to the Penguins who sealed the victory from the free-throw line.

Dominican will return to California as it takes on rival Academy of Art for the first time this season Wednesday at 5 p.m. PST at Kezar Pavilion.