COSTA MESA, Calif.- Dominican women's basketball (15-4, 9-4) traveled down the 5 freeway Thursday night to clash with PacWest foe Lions of Vanguard University. Both teams came into the game tied with the same conference record, but it was the Lions who would push away in the fourth quarter for the 82-66 victory.

Dominican was led by their SoCal trio of Kaylyn Buchanon, Alyssa Alvarado, and Mahliya Wilson who made themselves right at home. Buchanon, who is a do-it-everything type of point guard for the Pengs, was everywhere on the court tonight against the Lions finishing one rebound and assist shy of a triple-double while posting a team high 16 points.

Both offenses started fast Thursday night and showed why they belong a top the PacWest leader board. Alvarado and Wilson helped Buchanon in the offensive department for the black and gold as they were constantly giving the Lions defense fits. Alvarado provided the spark off the bench for the Pengs as she posted 14 points while dishing out three assists. Wilson did much of her damage in the paint as she shot an efficient 6 for 9 from the field while collecting 13 points.

Buchanon and Wilson led a run midway through the second period with both guards driving hard into the paint forcing the Lions defense to foul them. Buchanon is known for her aggressive nature, and in the second she showed off her facilitating skills by dishing it out to teammates who connected on their wide-open shots. Wilson would cap off a 7-0 run when she received a nice dish from Buchanon and finished it off with a sweet looking lay-up. Then with two seconds before half, Alvarado found herself open behind the arc and splashed it home to cut the deficit to only three.

Wilson would start the third quarter with a strong driving lay-up assisted on the play by teammate Keyonee Neal. The Penguins defense started to pick it up after half as well collecting a couple of steals, and a nicely timed block by Alvarado on a Lions guard who thought they had a wide-open lane to the bucket. Dominican would finish the game with four more steals than Vanguard.

Going into the fourth quarter, it was a two-point game. Both teams would trade three-pointers to start the quarter as Sofie Addiego and Isobel Crosswhite connected on a couple of treys for the Pengs.

However, it was the Lions who would stay hot behind the arc in the quarter propelling them to victory as they finished with nine more long balls than Dominican.

The Penguins will wrap up their road trip Jan. 31^st when they travel to APU at 1 p.m.