FRESNO, Calif. – Dominican women's basketball ran away for a 71-61 victory over Fresno Pacific Saturday afternoon at the Special Events Center.

Mahliya Wilson 15 points to go with three assists and four rebounds for the Penguins (16-5, 10-5 PacWest), while Kaylyn Buchanon added 13 points, eight boards, three assists and three steals. Keyonee Neal and Janiya Sawyer each finished with double-doubles scoring 11 points with Neal grabbing 13 rebounds and Sawyer adding 11. Angela Whitfield led the Sunbirds (7-14, 4-12 PacWest) with 17 points and five rebounds. Dominican had a massive advantage on the glass holding a 58-29 advantage including a 24-6 advanatage on the offensive glass over FPU.

After the Penguins could not pull away for the first 17 minutes of the game, they crashed the glass hard over the final two minutes of the half to take control of the game. Janiya Sawyer and her sister Jamia Sawyer combined for three offensive boards resulting in four second-chance points to begin the run pushing the lead to six-points with a minute left in the half. The defense then ratcheted up the pressure and Jamia Sawyer took an errant pass the other way for an easy layup. After one last defensive stop, Buchanon found Keyonee Neal on an inbounds play for a layup with her right hand going left to push the lead to 39-29 at the break.

Kaylyn Buchanon got the Penguins off to a strong start as she used her speed to get into the key before finding Julianne Cotterill for a layup and then blew by a defender to the hoop for a layup on the next possession to take a 4-0 lead in the first minute of the game. The teams traded buckets for the next four minutes into Jamia Sawyer found Isobel Crosswhite on the wing for a 3-pointer before working her way down low for a layup to push the lead to 18-11 with 3:20 remaining. The offense cooled over the next four minutes of the game as the Sunbirds chipped away at the lead with Nina Wisniewski hitting a free-throw and a 3-pointer early in the second quarter to cut the deficit to 19-18 with 9:29 until the half. 

The Penguins clung to a small lead until Alexa Perryman hit a 3-pointer from the right wing to tie the game at 25-25 with five minutes left in the second. Buchanon hit a key 3-pointer with three minutes left until the half to give Dominican a bit of breathing room but Trinity Tolbert converted an old-fashioned 3-point play on the other end for FPU to make it 31-29 in favor of Dominican before their closing minutes run.

The Sunbirds closed the gap to seven in the opening minutes of the new half but Wilson gathered an offensive board and put it back to spark Dominican. Wilson and Neal traded the next six points with Wilson capping off the 12-point run with a short jumper to take a 52-33 lead with 4:22 left in the quarter. It was all downhill from there as Wilson gave the Penguins their largest lead of the game with a layup halfway through the final period to make it 71-49 on the way to victory.

Dominican returns home to host Azusa Pacific on Monday at 5:30 p.m. PST at the Conlan Center.