Box Score SAN RAFAEL, Calif.  — A big second-half rally allowed the Dominican University of California women's basketball to build a nine-point lead Saturday night but it evaporated into an 81-68 loss to Alexsis Brown and the streak-shooting Cal Maritime Keelhaulers in a non-conference game at the Conlan Center.

The Lady Penguins (1-6) had come back from a nine-point deficit to capture a nine-point lead with 8:12 left in the game when Cal Maritime (5-7) and Brown, who had a game-high 30 points and 17 rebounds, suddenly got hot. The Keelhaulers went on a 25-6 run – making nine of 13 shots – and scored 31 points in the final 7:42 of the contest.

Kimi Nakamura was one of four Dominican players in double figures with 12 points. Melissa Wise added 11 points and seven rebounds and teammates Kayla Valentine and Te Manu Whakataki "Taki" Te Koi contributed 10 points. Jasmine Green had a team season-high 14 rebounds for the Lady Penguins.

“This is pretty much how our season has been. Our play is up and down,” said Dominican Head Coach Brianna Chambers. “We're still trying to learn to play consistently.”

Trailing by eight points at half, the Lady Penguins chipped away at the deficit, taking advantage of Cal Maritime missing 11 of its first 13 shots after intermission. Dominican finally took the lead 48-47 on an offensive rebound basket by Green then Wise sparked an 8-0 run by the Lady Penguins before Nakamura netted a 3-point shot for a 59-50 lead.

Dominican outrebounded Cal Maritime 63-46, 27-12 on the offensive glass, but the Lady Penguins, second in the Pacific West Conference in 3-point shots made, were cold from 3-point range, missing 15 of 18 shots from beyond the arc.

“We worked on rebounding all this week,” Chambers said. “The defense at times looked awesome. And we attacked the basket… This is what preseason is for – to get better.”

In the first half, the Lady Penguins four times built five-point leads before Cal Maritime's Brown, the California Pacific Conference's leading scorer, heated up. Brown scored 14 of the Keelhaulers' 17 points during a five-minute stretch to push Cal Maritime into the lead. Back-to-back 3-pointers by teammate Marisa Carion built the Keelheaders' advantage to nine points, 36-27.

Carion hit 4-of-5 three-pointers in the game and combined with teammate Sabrina Domingo to score 32 points off the bench. They were averaging 19 points a game between them.

Brown, who came into the game averaging 21.3 points per game, had 18 points in the first half. Te Koi, playing her first game since a season-ending knee injury last Jan. 27, had 10 points in nine minutes off the bench for the Lady Penguins, much to the delight of a dozen or so fellow alma mater from Rotorua Girls High School in New Zealand.

Te Koi was one of 10 Dominican players to score in the first half. The Lady Penguins, led by Green's eight rebounds, outrebounded Cal Maritime 30-19, 12-5 on the offensive boards, in the first 20 minutes yet trailed 42-34 at intermission.

Dominican is back in action on Tuesday when it hosts Saint Martin's University (5-5) of Lacey, Wash. in a non-conference game at the Conlan Center. Tipoff is 7:00 p.m.