Alishia Flaaten sets Dominican (CA) scoring record

Alisha Flaaten sets Dominican (CA) all-time scoring mark

SAN RAFAEL, CA - Alisha Flaaten, a 5-foot-6 senior guard from Hayward, became the all-time leading scorer in the history of Dominican University of California women's basketball on Thursday night in the first half of the Penguins' 72-69 loss to Academy of Art University of San Francisco at Dominican's Conlan Center.

Flaaten scored a team-high 19 points and nearly led Dominican to an upset win to avenge a 20-point loss to AAU on Jan. 23.

"It's definitely an honor to be at this school for four years and pass such a great (individual) record. It shows that all my hard work has paid off over the years," Flaaten said.

Once the game was stopped, Flaaten's feat was recognized with a halfcourt ceremony including Dominican President Joseph R. Fink, Lady Penguins Head Coach Brianna Chambers, Dominican Athletics Director Terry Tumey and Flaaten's parents, Lisa and John.

 "It definitely was a big night. That is a huge accomplishment," Chambers said. "She has been a solid, fantastic player for four years and for her to get (the record) the way she did, it was perfect."

Flaaten, who entered the NCAA Division II Pacific West Conference game against AAU needing seven points to own the 15-year-old school record, officially became Dominican's all-time career scoring leader in women's basketball with a long two-point field goal with 9:08 left in the first half.

She passed Jennifer Rogers Fernandez's record of 1,487. Fernandez, an NAIA All-American and inaugural inductee into the Dominican Athletics Hall of Fame, achieved her record from 1991-95.

"I would like to be the first to congratulate Alisha for breaking my all-time career scoring record at Dominican," Rogers Fernandez said in a statement from Winnemucca, NV., where she is now a mother of six and works as a nurse. "Thank you for your contribution to continuing the excellent tradition of women's basketball at Dominican."

Flaaten was the second leading scorer all-time (1,863 points) in her prep career at Moreau Catholic High School in Hayward when she was recruited to Dominican. She chose Dominican, then competing in NAIA Division II, over UNLV, San Jose State, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and Menlo College.

A business major, Flaaten scored 322 points in her freshman year then was the Penguins' second leading scorer with 469 points in her sophomore season when she averaged 15.1 points a game. Flaaten passed the 1,000 career point milestone last season when she netted a team-high 384 points. With 19 points on Thursday night, Flaaten has 1,500 points for her career with five games left to play this season and is averaging 14.8 points a game for the Penguins (2-9, 5-17) this season, second best in the PacWest Conference, during Dominican's first season in NCAA Div. II