SAN RAFAEL, Calif. - The Point Loma women's basketball team put up 28 points in the third quarter to pull away from Dominican (CA) and roll to a 75-54 victory on Thursday, Jan. 5.
 
The Sea Lions have now won seven straight games to improve to 12-2 on the season and 6-1 in the PacWest standings. The loss evened Penguins' record at 7-7 on the season and dropped them to 3-4 in the PacWest.
 
Brunk led the third quarter charge, scoring 14 of her team-leading 21 points in the 10-minute stretch. She went 6-of-9 from the field in the quarter to turn a one-point halftime deficit (29-28) into a 15-point lead (56-41). The 28 points in the third quarter matched the Sea Lions' entire first half output, and was their highest scoring quarter of the year.
 
Madison West also had a better second half, hitting three of her game-high five 3-pointers en route to posting 15 points. Kassidy Gengenbacher does as she always does, come off the bench and score double-figures. She posted 11 points and added eight rebounds. Roya Rustamzada led the team with nine rebounds and Anna Viettry had a game-high eight assists.
 
"They played zone against us and in the second half we attacked," said Point Loma head coach Lisa Faulkner. "We haven't played against a lot of zone this year so it took a half to figure out we could get the ball inside. Once we did Brunk did a great job attacking from the high post and we got easy shots to open up the perimeter. I got on them about being passive (in the first half) and when we stopped being passive we went and scored."
 
Sandra Ikeora had a double-double for Dominican with 23 points and 13 rebounds. However, she was the only Penguin to reach double-figures in any category. The Sea Lions held the Penguins to 34.0 percent shooting in the game, and to 28.6 percent in the second half. PLNU also forced DUC into 23 turnovers, compared to 10 for the Sea Lions, with just three of those coming in the second half.  
 
"We hang our hat on playing good defense," continued Faulkner. "Our goal is to make it difficult for the other team's main scorer and make the other people score, and for the most part we did our job."
 
The victory moved Point Loma into third place in the PacWest standings at 6-1.
 
"For us this is all a process," explained Faulkner. "It is about getting better every day and I couldn't even tell you how many games we have won in a row. I am just trying to stay focused on the next game and what we need to do to get better in the next practice. Our team is trying to focus on that as well, and the results will take care of themselves. If we keep sticking to the process, by the end of the year we will be the team we want to be."
 
Point Loma will now head home and prepare to host Fresno Pacific on Monday, Jan. 9 at 5:30 p.m. in the Welcome Back game for the PLNU students returning from Christmas break.