Box Score ST GEORGE, Utah -- The Dixie State University women's basketball team lost a 64-47 Pacific West Conference game to Dominican University on Saturday night in the Burns Arena.

The loss is the second straight for the Red Storm as they move to 8-11 overall and 6-7 in the PacWest. Haley Holmstead (American Fork, UT/American Fork) led DSU with 15 points in the loss.

For Domincan, they won the game on the glass by outrebounding Dixie State 59-37 to improve to 5-15 overall and 5-9 in the PacWest. Quewon-Owens led the Penguins with 18 points and 13 rebounds.

The two main areas of difference came via the paint and free throws.

The Penguins outrebounded the Red Storm 59-37 and garnered 16 more attempts from the charity stripe.

In other words, Dominican was the aggressor in this matchup, which is an unusual characteristic for Dixie State given their play this season.

Dominican entered with a lackluster overall record of 4-15, and on paper, didn't seem like they could match up with Dixie State's talent level. Nevertheless, those evaluations and figures didn't mean anything once tipoff commenced.

Even if the Red Storm might have overlooked their opponent is beside the point. What does matter is Dixie State missed an opportunity to make up ground in the standings against a team that they theoretically should have beaten.

Both teams played a physical matchup that featured a back-and-forth flow in the first half.

Dixie State (8-11 overall, 6-7 Pac West) was paced by Haley Holmstead (American Fork, UT/American Fork), who continues to be on the path of landing a spot on the all-Pac West team. She got off to another great start, scoring DSU's first nine points, which was highlighted by her baseline drive where she drew contact to get the and-1 sequence. Her ensuing free throw gave the Red Storm an early 9-8 lead.

Holmstead knows there is still work to be done before the start of the Pac West Conference tournament next month. And if the Red Storm are to snap their current two-game skid and four of their last five overall, she will likely be the individual to lead their turnaround.

After a 30-30 tie at halftime, the Penguins built momentum in the second half and soon took control with a 12-2 run.

Holmstead's minutes were cutback in the second half as Turner hoped to speed the game up and switch their defensive schemes.

At any rate, the Penguins rolled on both ends of the court, holding the Red Storm to just 21 percent from the floor (7 of 32) in the final 20 minutes. In addition, they produced 11 more free throws in that span.

Dixie State would cut the deficit to 51-41 with about five and a half minutes left, but never could get any closer than that.

Kaylah Miller (San Diego, CA/La Jolla Country Day) added eight points, but went just 3 of 14 from the field. Brianna White (Phoenix, AZ/Tolleson Union) had eight points and Taylor Mann (Castle Dale, UT/Emery) had five rebounds in the losing effort.

Turner said the Red Storm are building a program and the players need to understand they can't get wins just by showing up.

She added and their focus next week will be on getting this group in the right mindset with an extra focus on defense.

The Red Storm play their next four games at home, starting with Holy Names on Saturday at 5 p.m.