SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – Andraya Perez knocked down a pair of clutch step-back jumpers in the closing minutes to propel Dominican women's basketball over Hawai'i Pacific 61-57 Thursday night at the Conlan Recreation Center.
 
Alaiyah San Juan led all players with 19 points, while Taylor Linzie recorded her third straight double-double with 12 points and 25 rebounds for the Penguins (18-9, 12-4 PacWest). Linzie's 25 rebounds tied Sandra Ikeora for the single game record in Dominican's NCAA Division II history. Serenity Santos led the Sharks (9-12, 5-10 PacWest) with 11 point and four rebounds. The Penguins continued to remain stingy on the defensive end, holding HPU to 29,.7% shooting from the field.
 
Dominican started strong working the ball down low to Cooper for a layup before Linzie converted an old-fashioned 3-point play to take the 5-0n lead with 8:21 left in the opening period. The Sharks were able to take advantage of a cold start from the charity stripe by the Penguins to climb back within one as Morgan Hawkins sank a shot behind the arc. Dominican kept its lead and San Juan eventually answered with her own 3-point make to push the lead back to four before driving down the lane for two more to make it 20-14 with 1:21 remaining in the quarter. Leslie Mojica answered the run with a 3-pointer to cut the lead in half and a San Juan free throw pushed the lead to four heading to the second.
 
The Sharks started the second on a 5-0 run as Lupe Vazquez converted a 3-point play to take the 22-21 with 7:26 remaining in the half. Kaylyn Buchanon-Lamb dropped a dime to Linzie for a jumper to answer on the other end and the lead began to seesaw for the next two minutes. After San Juan knocked down a pair from the charity stripe, she found Amoroso on a long pass for a layup through contact as her 3-point play propelled the 7-0 run to push the Penguins in front 32-26 with 4:16 until the break. Santos and Vazquez knocked down back-to-back 3-pointer to tie the game 36-36 with 1:35 remaining. Perez found her stroke knocking down her first from behind the arc to answer and send Dominican into the locker Reim leading 40-36.
 
Perez remained hot to stark the second as she knocked down a 3-pointer top start the second half but HPU crawled back into the game as Sarah Tait stole the ball on one end and took it the other way for two to cut the deficit to 45-43. Dominican answered by scoring the next five with San Juan capping the run as she drilled another 3-pointer to push the lead back to seven with 3:09 remaining.
 
The game continued to vacillate between a one and two possession game as Abby Coooper began the fourth with a short jumper and a pair of free throws to extend the Penguin lead to 56-48 with eight minutes left on the clock. Dominican went cold and the Sharks sprang into action as Santos connected on a 3-pointer to cut the Dominican lead to three and Elle Berge gave HPU the 57-56 lead on a 3-pointer from the corner with 2:55 remaining. Perez stepped in to end the shooting drought as she connected on a long step-back jumper to retake the lead. After a defensive stop, Perez did it again this time from behind the arc from the left elbow to extend the lead to 61-57 with 1:31 remaining. The Penguins were locked in on defense and held the Sharks scoreless for the remainder of the game to seal the victory.
 
Dominican will host Academy of Art on Monday at 5:30 p.m. PST at the Conlan Center as it continues a long home stand.