Box Score The Dominican University women's basketball team closed out the 2013-2014 season on Tuesday evening with a 72-61 win over their River Forest rivals, the Concordia University Chicago Cougars, behind a combined 50 points from freshman Alyssa Hernandez (Bartlett, Ill.) and sophomore Allie Tapanes (Winfield, Ill.).

The Stars came out on fire, scoring 18 points in the first five minutes as freshman Claudia DeNigris (Addison, Ill.) opened the scoring with back-to-back three pointers and the Stars led 18-10 with 14:59 to play in the first half.

Cooling off slightly, the Stars did not have a field goal over the next three-plus minutes until Tapanes buried a three to ignite an 8-4 run as the Dominican lead grew to 27-18 midway through the first half.

The Stars' inside-out attack continued throughout the remainder of the half as the lead grew to 14, 36-22, at the break.

Hernandez had 15 points and six rebounds at the half while Tapanes went 4-for-5 from behind the three-point arc for 12 first half points.

As a team, Dominican shot 13-for-29 from the field in the opening half, going 6-for-12 from three, while the Cougars managed to shoot just 8-for-34 from the field and went 0-for-15 from three.

In the second half, the Stars took the Cougars best shots, withstanding a couple of Cougars' runs before sealing the game at the foul line. Concordia went on an 8-0 run at one point to shave the lead down to five at 46-41 with ten minutes to play.

After a timeout, the Stars answered with their own 8-0 run, bookended by a pair of baskets by Hernandez to grow the lead back to 13, 54-41 with 7:14 to play.

Dominican continued to grow the lead over the next three minutes, taking their largest lead of the night, 62-45, on another Hernandez lay in.

Concordia Chicago made one more run, cutting the deficit back down to six with 1:17 to play but the Stars converted on seven of eight attempts from the foul line in the final minute to preserve the win.

Hernandez finished with a season-high 26 points to lead all scorers. The 6'1 freshman went 12-for-17 from the field and pulled down 11 rebounds for her second double-double of the season. Tapanes managed to get off just three shots during the second half, but finished with 24 points, equaling her season high, going 10-for-11 at the free throw line.

The Cougars were led by April Broska's 25 points while Angelik Young poured in 21 points and pulled down 11 rebounds in the losing effort.

The win was the Stars' first of the season, pushing their record to 1-24 and 1-19 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference.