(SAN DIEGO) PLNU Women's Basketball had its home opener spoiled on Saturday, with visiting Cal State Dominguez Hills leaving Golden Gymnasium with an 87-65 victory.
 
Despite Point Loma's winless start through four games, Head Coach Charity Elliott is still confident in her team's potential going forward.
 
"We just have to keep working every day and I truly believe this team will get where we want to be," Elliott said. "We have a lot of young players who are getting better and better every day, so I remain very hopeful and excited about this group."
 
The Sea Lions had a bright start to the game, with Ellie Turk getting out in transition to score six of PLNU's first eight points and helping Point Loma pick up the pace offensively in the early going.
 
Grace Moawad's 3-point play with under a minute left in the opening quarter gave PLNU a brief lead, which CSUDH took away before the quarter ended to lead by two points after one.
 
But while Point Loma increased its offensive output in the second quarter, the Sea Lions were unable to keep up with the Toros, who caught fire by shooting 73.7% from the field in the second as part of a 31-point quarter.
 
Trailing by 16 at the half, PLNU quickly found a rhythm offensively after the intermission, with Allie Carreon sinking a 3-pointer to open the third.
 
Annika Thayer corralled an offensive rebound, giving the Sea Lions an extra possession that resulted in a Turk bucket. Point Loma then forced a turnover, resulting in Haylee Saurette's layup at the other end.
 
After a triple from Turk, a layup from Madison Corder got PLNU to within 11, but that was as close to single digits as the Sea Lions would get the rest of the way, with the Toros extending their advantage to 18 by the end of the quarter.
 
Eiley Tippins' block early in the fourth led to a fastbreak layup for Turk to give Point Loma an encouraging start to the fourth, but the visitors responded with an 11-0 run to end any hope PLNU had of a comeback.
 
Turk led the Sea Lions with 22 points, while Saurette scored in double figures for the fourth-straight game and posted her second double-double of the season with her 12 points and 10 rebounds.
 
"Haylee continues to be consistent and is giving us some great minutes," Elliott said. "Today Ellie was great in transition."
 
Point Loma (0-4 overall) next travels to Nampa, Idaho to take part in the Thanksgiving Classic hosted by Northwest Nazarene. PLNU will play Simon Fraser on Friday at 12 p.m. MT / 11 a.m. PT before playing against host NNU on Saturday at 5:15 p.m. MT / 4:15 p.m. PT.
 
"We've got to keep working to cut down our turnovers and build better chemistry, both offensively and defensively," Elliott said. "If we do that and knock some shots down, we will be just fine."