The Dominican University women's basketball team led by as many as 14 points early in the fourth quarter before watching the lead and the game eventually slip away as Rockford University's Casey Pettit calmly converted a pair of free throws with 0.2 seconds to play, lifting the Regents past the Stars, 57-55.
 
Trailing 25-24 at the half, Dominican opened the second half on a 7-1 run over the first 3:11 of the period to take a 31-26 lead.  The Stars doubled their lead before the end of the half as Timiya Ray scored the final five points of the period as she got a runner to go in the paint before burying a three with just :20 to play in the third as Dominican took a 46-36 lead into the fourth.
 
The Stars continued to extend the lead early in the fourth, opening their largest lead of the night, 50-36, with 8:33 to play when Claudia DeNigris found Ray in the middle of the lane for a little jumper before the Stars' offense sputtered.
 
Dominican managed just five points over the final 8:30 of the game while turning the ball over ten times during that stretch to let the Regents back into the game.
 
Rockford whittled the lead down to three before evening the score at 52-52 with 2:15 to play when Mallorie Getzelman knocked down her only three-point basket of the night.  Dominican answered with a DeNigris three on their next possession but neither team would score for the next 1:44 until Rockford's Nicole Silvers buried a corner three to even the score with :07 to play.
 
Out of a timeout, Dominican got the look they wanted when Amari Stafford hit Ray on a backdoor cut to the basket but Virginia Reed disrupted the shot just enough.  After a quick Rockford turnover Ray took another jumper from the free throw line that missed and Pettit was fouled on the rebound.
 
In total, the Regents finished 19-for-26 from the foul line while Dominican converted on just three of its seven attempts at the free throw line.
 
"Tonight's game was promising for our future," commented Gabby Johnson, Dominican's head coach, after the loss. "We must learn to finish those games.  With that said, it is hard to win when you put the other team to the line 26 times and only go seven times yourself. We need to attack the basket more with purpose and tenacity."
 
For the Stars, Angela Evola finished with a team-high 15 points on 6-for-11 shooting off the bench.  The senior forward connected on three of four attempts from three-point range to score 11 points in the first half.  Stafford added a season-high 12 points on 5-for-9 shooting and pulled down six rebounds in 29 minutes.
 
For the Regents, Pettit and Getzelman led the way with 14 points apiece while Taylor May added 13 points in the winning effort.
 
Dominican, now 1-8 overall and 0-5 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC), will enjoy a 12 day break before returning to action on December 31 with a 1:00 p.m. game at Marian University.