A barrage of 3-pointers in the fourth quarter from Gator guards Alexandra Surrena-Thompson and Deonna Mayfield cut Dominican University’s lead to eight points, but ultimately, their efforts were not enough to come out victorious.
The San Francisco State University women’s basketball team was handed their first loss of the season by a rolling Dominican Penguins team, 64-53. The Gators came off two wins at the CCAA/PacWest Challenge against the Menlo College Oaks and the Jessup University Warriors the past week, but were outplayed by the undefeated Penguins on Friday night.
A slow start hindered the Gators early, but head coach Moné Peoples said the team performed too little, too late with far fewer turnovers after the first half.
“I think it’s a wake-up call for how we need to come and play,” Peoples said. “The second half is really who we are as a team.”
The Gators were down by 20 points heading into the second quarter. They committed 30 turnovers in total, and Dominican capitalized with 29 points off turnovers. The Penguins scored a whopping 18 points off turnovers in the second quarter alone. The Gators shot for 12.5% from the field in the same quarter and missed three free throws as well.
Junior center Malea Scobie spoke about what the team had to do to try and pull themselves back into the game after the first half.
“We knew we had to have each other’s backs even more,” Scobie said. “After having 20 turnovers in the first half, we knew that we had to change our whole game plan and just play like we wanted to be on the court.”
Scobie ended the tilt with one defensive rebound, two points and a steal.
The second half was a different story. The Gators outscored the Penguins 38-29, but the effort unfortunately came too late. The improvement is still to be noted, as they cut their turnover amount in half, which helped them jump back into the game.
The Gators shot 70% from the field in the fourth quarter and were 5-of-11 from three-point range during the second half, an improvement from their rough 2-of-10 in the first half.
Redshirt sophomore guard Geriah Bradley led the team in points with nine, had three assists and two steals. She played 33 minutes, which was second-most on the team, but also led the team in turnovers with 11.
“I got really frustrated and had to sit out for a moment, but my team really stepped it up,” Bradley said. “I’m really proud of my team stepping it up and being able to dictate the ball without me out there.”
The Gators had trouble containing Dominican’s point guard Kaylyn Buchanon, who was their star player for the night. She racked up 16 points, six rebounds and five steals. Despite being on the court for all 40 minutes, she only turned the ball over three times. She shot 50% from the field and made her only three-point attempt. She drew a lot of fouls when driving into the paint, resulting in 10 free throw attempts.
The Gators scored 29 points off the bench and were commended by freshman forward Tiera O’Connor.
“Our bench players came off and hit some big shots,” O’Connor said.
O’Connor described how the energy stayed high from the bench throughout the game, keeping the team in contention despite the deficit.
Though the result was not what they wanted, the second half gave a taste of what the Gators are capable of when at their best. The Penguins made it all the way to the PacWest conference final last year, so a close game like this bodes well for SFSU.
“I think we have a good chance at getting a good spot in the [California Collegiate Athletic Conference],” Scobie said.
The Gators were ranked in the bottom half of the preseason poll, but hope to outperform those expectations this season. They now turn their attention to the Fresno Pacific University Sunbirds on Saturday, who recently had their first win of the season the day before with an upset against Cal State San Bernardino Coyotes.
Dominic Clima (he/him) is a fourth-year Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts student and cross-country and track and field athlete at San Francisco State University. Born and raised in San Jose, California, Clima grew up playing hockey and watching the San Jose Sharks. Today, Clima is the social media manager for SFSU’s Student-Athletic Advisory Committee and does play-by-play for SF State Athletics. He plans to continue working in the sports broadcasting field after he graduates in Fall 2026.
