SAN DIEGO – Dominican women's basketball fell 64-61 Thursday night to Westmont in the quarterfinals of the PacWest Basketball Championships at Golden Gymnasium.

Alyssa Alvardo led the Penguins (21-8) with 15 points and two assists, while Isobel Crosswhite finished with 13 points. Jazmyn Shipp led the Warriors (21-8) with 13 points and nine rebounds. Westmont continued to use their height advantage over Dominican with a 49-38 advantage on the glass and a 20-12 advantage in second chance points.

The teams traded buckets for much of the third quarter with Shipp knocking down a 3-pointer and a short jumper over the final minutes to take a 53-47 lead into the final period of play. Shipp opened the third quarter with a pair of 3-pointers to extend the lead to a game-high eight points with 7:25 remaining. The lead remained at eight heading to the final two minutes and Dominican began a furious comeback attempt. Keyonee Neal hit a pair of free throws and Alvarado knocked down a 3-pointer to close the gap to three with 1:11 remaining. Janiya Sawyer then stole the ball in the back court after the ensuing inbound and hit a pull-up jumper in the lane to cut the gap to 62-61 with 56 seconds left in the game. Knight hit a short jumper to push the lead back to three and Westmont forced a turnover with 20 seconds left as they sought to hold on down the stretch. Kaylyn Buchanon was able to tie up Noemie Bariteau with 12 seconds left to give the possession back to the Penguins with 12 seconds remaining, but Alvarado's step back attempt fell short to end the season.  

Westmont was able to build a small lead as Lisa Kiefer and Shipp crashed the offensive glass resulting in a pair of layups to take the 12-6 lead midway through the first quarter. Crosswhite provided an offensive spark with a jumper and a 3-pointer as she helped cut the deficit to 17-15 with 2:36 left in the period. Crosswhite's second 3-pointer of the game inched Dominican within one, but Bariteau answered on the other end to stymie the momentum. 

Dominican continued to push forward and Aryn Bright pulled up from the left elbow to start the second quarter to tie the game at 24-24, but neither team could connect over the next three minutes when Kiefer laid it in off the glass. Alvarado gave Dominican its first lead of the game as she hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 2:43 remaining in the half. Skyler Knight hit a 3-pointer for Westmont and Crosswhite answered as the game began to seesaw. After Buchanon collected an offensive rebound and putback to give the Penguins a slight advantage with under 10 seconds remaining, Westmont quickly moved the ball up the court and Knight buried a 3-pointer from the left corner at the buzzer to send the Warriors into the break leading 36-34.