by IRVINE, Calif. – Adia Walker scored a career-high 25 points to lead Dominican women’s basketball to a 72-63 victory over Concordia University Irvine to open its road trip Saturday afternoon at CU Arena.
Walker added six rebounds to her total while three more Penguins (9-2, 2-1 PacWest) scored in double figures. Alex Salise added an efficient 15 points to go with six rebounds, four assists and three steals. Olga Faasolo added 12 points and seven rebounds, while Alaiyah San Juan found a groove in the fourth quarter to finish with 11 points. Stephanie Lee led the Golden Eagles (3-6, 1-2 PacWest) with 14 points, while Savannah Felix-Amoroso contributed a game-high 12 rebounds.
The game was tight throughout with neither team holding a double-digit lead with 12 lead changes and eight ties in regulation. Dominican though made the most of its turnover opportunities scoring 26 points off 23 forced turnovers.
The first quarter was a seesaw battle between the two teams with five lead changes and two ties with neither team leading by more than three points. The Penguin offense got rolling in the second quarter as Faasolo got free in the paint for an easy layup and Andraya Perez found Walker down low for two more. Walker scored the next four inside the paint to cap an 8-0 run to give Dominican a 24-17 lead with 8:21 left in the half. CUI battled back behind Felix-Amoroso who scored four points and found Lee in the corner for a 3-pointer to tie the game up at 24 with 7:15 remaining.
After the Golden Eagles retook a small lead, Walker knocked down a 3-pointer from the wing and followed up with a driving layup off an assist from Jenna Duley to get the Penguins rolling again. She capped the 9-point run as Alex Salise found her underneath the hoop for another easy bucket to take the 34-26 lead with 3:02 showing on the clock. The final three minutes were dominated by the defense though CUI was able to close the gap to three at the break.
The Golden Eagles needed two minutes to tie the game back up in the third quarter as Lee knocked down another 3-pointer and Izzy Navarro added a jumper in the paint to make it 36-36. The game began to seesaw once again as Lee gave CUI a lead with a layup before the Penguins battled back taking a lead after Salise knocked down a transition 3-pointer off an assist from San Juan with 3:41 remaining. The Golden Eagles took its largest lead of the game as Erika Maggard converted an old-fashioned 3-point play with 1:09 remaining but layups by Ysobelle Eustaquio and Faasolo trimmed the gap to 52-50 heading to the final quarter of action.
Walker scored four straight for the Penguins to begin the fourth to tie the game before San Juan connected on a 3-pointer from the right corner to put Dominican on top 57-54 with 7:42 remaining. The game remained close but Faasolo drove inside for back-to-back layups before Walker drove into the paint for two more to cap a 6-0 run that pushed the Penguin lead to 65-58 with 1:22 remaining. It was all the room they needed as the lead never dipped below five points and Dominican sealed the victory from the charity stripe.
