The Dominican University women's basketball team raced out to a 15-9 lead after the first quarter but labored through an eight-point second quarter in falling to the Kalamazoo College Hornets 58-53 in the Stars' 2015-2016 season opener.
 
Jasmyn Hardin (Cincinnati, Ohio) scored six of her team-high 16 points in the opening frame as the Stars shot over 46-percent from the field in the opening frame while holding the Hornets to just 3-for-15 shooting to open the game.
 
The Hornets' offense then caught fire in the second quarter, opening the frame on a 17-0 run that spanned the first 5:35 of the quarter before a Harden layup broke Dominican's scoreless spell with Kalamazoo leading 26-17.  Hardin added two more layups and sophomore Koraima Marroquin (Chicago, Ill.) added a pair of free throws as the Stars ended the half on a 6-2 run to narrow the Stars' gap to 28-23 at the half.
 
Kalamazoo added to their lead early in the third period, building up a ten-point lead, 33-23, with under nine minutes to play but the Stars refused to let the Hornets run away, using a 5-0 run on a Marroquin three and a layup by Shamia Clark (Rock Island, Ill.) to narrow the gap all the way down to 39-36 before Kalamazoo closed out the period with a pair of free throws.
 
The Hornet's lead hovered between 5-9 points throughout much of the fourth period until Claudia DeNigris (Addison, Ill.) knocked down a three to pull the Stars within 56-53 with less than thirty seconds to play.  However, an intentional foul and offensive rebound by the Hornets kept the Stars from getting the ball back until less than ten seconds remained and Dominican could not get any closer.
 
"It is tough to lose a game like that to start the season," said Dominican's fourth-year head coach Gabby Johnson, "but our team took a huge step today.  We will learn how to close out those close games."
 
"Our focus now is to recover and get ready for next weekend's tournament," continued Johnson.
 
In total, Dominican shot 22-for-64 from the field, paced by Hardin who went 8-for-12 and grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds for career double-double number four for the sophomore.  Marroquin added 13 points on 5-for-7 shooting from the field while Angela Evola (Marseilles, Ill.) chipped in nine points in 28 minutes despite sitting out the entire second period with two fouls.
 
For the Hornets, Grace Smith led three in double-figures with a game-high 20 points on 7-for-11 shooting and going 5-for-11 from the foul line.
 
Dominican will look to break into the win column next weekend, traveling to Richmond, Indiana, for the Quaker Classic hosted by Earlham College.  The Stars will take on the host Quakers on Friday at 8:00 p.m. ET and then face either Olivet College or Kenyon College on Saturday before returning home to River Forest.