HONOLULU – Nationally ranked Hawai'i Pacific University ran its winning streak to nine straight after taking a wire-to-wire 68-59 PacWest Conference win over Notre Dame de Namur on Thursday night at The Shark Tank.
 
The Sharks (13-1, 8-0), ranked 11th in the WBCA Division II Coaches poll and 12th in the D2SIDA poll beat the Argonauts (3-11, 1-7) for the second time this season.
 
While the Sharks never trailed, the Argos fought to keep the contest with a single-digit differential, as HPU's largest lead was 13 in the third quarter and the final was just nine points.
 
Junior Makenna Gambee of Hillsboro, Ore./Hillsboro led the Sharks with 19 points. Sophomore Amy Baum of Melbourne, Australia/Rowville Secondary, added 15 points with a game-highs of nine rebounds, six assists and four steals. Junior Alysha Marcucci of Melbourne, Australia/Marist-Sion scored 12 points.
 
The Argos were paced by Cheyenne Jankulovski with 13 points and eight rebounds. Nikki Miller chipped in 12 points.
 
HPU shot 44 percent (27-of-61) from the floor, including 6-of-26 (23 percent) from the 3-point arc. The Sharks hit 8-of-10 (80 percent) from the foul line. The Argonauts made a strong 49 percent (22-of-45) from the field, with 4-of-9 (44 percent) from the arc. NDNU hit 11-of-14 (79 percent) from the charity stripe. NDNU outrebounded the Sharks 31-28, but HPU turned the ball over 10 times to the Argos 20.
 
HPU got the game off on the right foot as Marcucci buried a 3-pointer just 10 seconds into the contest. NDNU would cut the Sharks lead to just one several times in the quarter before pulling out to an eight-point lead with a minute left. The Argos got back-to-back layups from Jankulovsk to trail by only four after one at 24-20.
 
Notre Dame de Namur cut the lead to one with the first shot of the second quarter with a Marlene Salazar 3-pointer. HPU and NDNU traded scores throughout the quarter before the Sharks went on a 9-2 run to close the half capped by a Gambee traditional layup-free throw 3-point play for a 42-34 halftime lead.
 
The Sharks expanded their lead to double-digits with a 7-2 run to start the quarter. HPU got a 13-point lead on a Baum triple with 7:22 remaining in the quarter. A layup by senior Starr Rivera of Honolulu/Roosevelt up 55-43 at the end of the third.
 
The fourth quarter saw the Argos chip at the lead, only to have the Sharks get back to a dozen point advantage, the last time on a Baum free throw with 17.2 seconds remaining. The Argos Katie Campana hit an uncontested 3-pointer with 10 seconds left to roundout the scoring at 68-59.
 
The Sharks play their fifth game in 10 days on Saturday when they host Dominican (Calif.) in league play. Tipoff is slated for 1 p.m. at The Shark Tank.