IRVINE, Calif. – Two young Golden Eagles tallied personal bests in the scoring column to help Concordia University Irvine top Dominican 75-68 in a rare Monday matinee in Irvine.

CUI built a 32-29 lead by halftime behind a strong performance by Allison Shumate. She scored 13 of her career-high 17 points in the first half.  Ashari Cassell added 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting in the first 20 minutes of action.

Concordia closed strong by outscoring the Penguins 26-19 in the final period.  Freshman Asia Darcuiel tied her career-high in scoring with 22 points for the second time already this season. She canned a number of mid-range jumpers to keep the visiting Penguins off-balance.

The first-year Golden Eagle continues to impress as a change of pace off the bench that can provide instant offense. Darcuiel is now averaging 14.8 points over the course of her last five games.

Shumate also had career-highs with six rebounds while playing a season-high 22 minutes. Cassell finished with 12 points and junior point guard Hannah Vela added eight points and three steals.

Genesis Hopkins provided much needed support on the boards with a team-high 12 rebounds to go with four blocks. Keyonee Neal led Dominican with 10 points and a game-high 16 rebounds.

CUI improved to 4-4 overall and is now 2-1 in PacWest play. Dominican has lost two in a row in conference after opening the year 6-0 during their non-conference schedule.

"This is a year of growth, toughness, and learning how to respond when things get hard — and we saw that (in this game)," said CUI head coach Christine Collins Kiernan. "Our freshmen rose to the challenge when their number was called, and our veteran group did an outstanding job controlling the details and anchoring us to our game plan. We knew this game was going to be fast, chaotic, and full of runs, and our goal was to survive those moments without drifting from who we are. That's a huge step forward for this group."

The Golden Eagles are back in action this Thursday, Dec 18 at 3 p.m. against Fresno Pacific in their last conference affair before Christmas break. The CUI men will also face the Sunbirds as the second part of that PacWest doubleheader at approximately 5:15 pm.

CLICK HERE for the full CUI women's basketball schedule