MERCED, Calif. – The University of California, Merced women's basketball team fell 84-70 to Dominican on Saturday afternoon inside the Joseph Edward Gallo Gymnasium.
The Bobcats (1-1) loss was their first of the season.
Sarina Nagra led the Bobcats with 24 points on a career-high six made three-pointers. Nagra shot 60% (6-10) from beyond the arc and added three assists and a steal to her great shooting night.
Nicole Lukito finished with 15 rebounds, nine points, two assists, and a steal.
Elise LeBeau scored eight points to go along with four assists and three rebounds.
Paloma Ramirez hit a pair of three-pointers and a corner jumper for an eight-point afternoon.
Quinn Godfrey hauled in eleven rebounds. She pitched in six points and three assists offensively.
Other notables include five points from Mariah Flores and four rebounds and three assists from Jazzy Beltran.
UC Merced never led in the game and were unable to recover from committing 23 turnovers. Dominican turned the Bobcats 23 turnovers into 36 points.
Dominican scored the first six points of the game and led by double digits at 13-2 before the first media timeout. Nagra and Ramirez responded with back-to-back three-pointers to get the Bobcats back within two possessions. UC Merced trailed 19-12 at the end of one.
Nagra buried a three-pointer to start the second quarter to cut the deficit down to four points. However, Dominican countered with a 14-2 run that extended the Penguins lead to as many as 16 points, 33-17. The margin was also 16 points with 90 seconds to go before intermission but Ramirez and Ixchel Rojo Valdez connected on three-pointers to close the gap. Though, Dominican banked in a three-pointer at the buzzer to carry a 43-30 lead to halftime.
The teams traded buckets throughout the third quarter with Dominican's lead holding between 11-15 points for the entirety of the frame. The Bobcats made up just one point in the quarter and trailed 63-51 going into the fourth.
A LeBeau three-pointer to begin the final frame brought the Bobcats within single digits for the first time since the first half. Shortly after, Nagra cashed in her fifth triple of the day at the 7:28 mark and it was just a five-point game, 65-60. Dominican followed with five straight points and used a 15-4 extended run over the next four minutes to pull away for good, leading 80-64. Dominican's lead reached a game-high 17 points at 84-67 under a minute. Nagra finished the scoring with her career-best sixth three-pointer of the day.
Despite the loss, UC Merced outshot Dominican from beyond the arc hitting 42.9% (12-28) of its three-pointers. The Bobcats shot 41.4% overall. UC Merced and Dominican matched each other with 39 rebounds.
Simdi Chukwu made her collegiate debut. Rojo Valdez made her UC Merced debut, while Sydney Corder Boyd saw her first action of the season.
Up next, UC Merced will begin a seven-game road trip at Hawa'i Pacific on Friday, November 21. Tipoff from the Shark Tank in Honolulu is set for 8:00pm PST.
