AZUSA, Calif– Azusa Pacific fell to Dominican, snapping their 15 game winning streak, on Friday night. The Cougars put up a good fight up until the last play before falling to the Penguins 81-77. The team is now 18-2 overall and 14-1 in Conference play with four more games left before entering the PacWest tournament. 

The team's leading scorer, Paige Uyehara, had 20 points shooting 6-for-16 from the FG range and collecting 3 assists and 2 rebounds.

For her ninth game in a row, Molly Whitmore had double digits with 17 points against the Penguins. She shot 8-for-10 and grabbed a team-high 7 rebounds. 

Kelly Heimburger also grabbed 5 rebounds and scored 12 points shooting 4-for-10 and going 4-for-4 from the charity stripe. Kayla Shaw added 10 points, shooting 4-for-10 from the FG range, including two triples. 

How it Happened: From the beginning, Dominican and Azusa Pacific went back to back throughout the first quarter. Amayah Kirkman had a three pointer to give the Cougars their last points of the first quarter but they still trailed the Penguins by 2.

A few minutes into the second quarter, Heimburger capped off two free throws to give the Cougars a four point advantage over the Penguins. A few plays later, Shaw put up a triple to give them the six point lead. 

Back to back layups from Tylee Manuel and Heimburger kept the Cougars in the game. Whitmore and Uyehara found the basket a few more times giving the team a 10 point lead with 3:02 left in the half.

Finally, the Cougars seemed to find their groove shooting 9-for-15 (60%) with 25 points in the second quarter alone. They also went 6-for-6 from the freethrow line to give them the 34-40 advantage going into the second half.

Coming out of halftime, Dominican started to chip away at their deficit but the Cougars held it down in the paint. Whitmore, Manuel, and Heimburger, put up 12 of the team's 16 points in the quarter giving the team a twelve point lead with 2:53 left in the half. From here, Dominican went on a 9-0 run to end the quarter down by 3. 

Dominican was able to regain the lead within the first two minutes and Azusa Pacific played catch-up the rest of the quarter. Uyehara and Shaw put up 18 of the team's 21 points that quarter to keep the team in it up until the last few minutes.

Uyehara and Lowden would eventually foul out and Azusa Pacific was never able to regain the lead falling by 4 to Dominican

By the Numbers: The Cougars who average 9 triples a game were held to 5-for-26 from behind the three point line against Dominican's 7-for-17. The Penguins also held them to 29-for-68 (42.6%) from the FG range.

The Cougars were able to convert the Penguins' 18 turnovers into 23 points and 38 of the team's 77 points were scored within the paint. Azusa Pacific who usually averages 42 rebounds per game, grabbed 38 boards and also shot 14-for-16 from the charity stripe.

Up Next: The Cougars will host Point Loma on February 14th in the Felix Event Center. Tip off will take place at 5:15pm and spectators are welcome in accordance with the current COVID guidelines. Maximum capacity is 500 and all fans are required to wear masks. You can also live stream the game here.