Box Score

Fresno Pacific men's basketball got an early taste of some high-pressure situations in a tough road environment in its season opener as the Sunbirds held off Holy Names 87-85 Saturday night in Oakland.

Jordan Wild led FPU with 19 points and 12 rebounds. Casper Hesseldal also recorded a double-double with 13 points and 10 boards. Adam Kado scored 16 and Brandon Rowe added 11 in the win.

FPU led by as many as 10 in the second half, but had a hard time putting away the Hawks, who shot 53 percent from the field and got 27 points and 12 rebounds from forward David Scott.

The Sunbirds held the advantage on the glass, out-rebounding HNU 46-28 and had an abnormally-high 29 offensive rebounds. FPU also forced the Hawks into 31 turnovers.

FPU fell behind early and allowed the Hawks' shooters to gain confidence that would last throughout the night. The Sunbirds trailed 20-10, before a Rickey Vick layup cut into the deficit. The Sunbirds would tie with 7:53 remaining in the first half on a putback by Kendall Holmes, but wouldn't take their first lead of the game until 2:39 before the break when a bucket by Deshaun Legree put them up 38-37.

Matt Christman would score five points in the half's last minute and a half to help put FPU ahead 47-42 heading into the locker room.

The Sunbirds would not trail for the remainder of the game, but the Hawks would make it interesting. Hesseldal opened up the second half with a three-pointer and a bucket by Wild gave FPU its largest lead at 52-42. The Hawks would gradually cut into it though and just five minutes later the score was back to 61-60.

FPU would build the lead back up to seven on a Kado three-pointer with 10:03 to play, but once again the Hawks refused to go away, knocking down shots from all over the field. With five minutes remaining, FPU clung to a 77-75 lead.

Baskets by Legree, Kado and Rowe brought the Sunbird lead to eight with three and half minutes to play, but just over two minutes later HNU's Obie Woods would hit a big three-pointer to make it a one-possession game at 83-80 with 50 seconds left.

Kado hit a clutch shot on the ensuing possession to make it 85-80, but Scott answered for the Hawks scoring with 12 seconds left. Two free throws by Kado would put the game out of reach at 87-82. An HNU three-pointer in the closing seconds would make the final score 87-85.

The Sunbirds didn't shoot particularly well from the line (11-for-18) or beyond the arc (4-for-14) and had 20 turnovers in the team's first time playing together outside of practice. The team played much more composed in the second half.

"With 10 new guys, I know it's going to take some time to come together," said Chris Wright, after his first game as a head coach. "We know we have a long ways to go, but I'm proud of our toughness and I told the guys we'll take an ugly win over a pretty loss any day."

The Sunbirds (1-0) take on Fresno State next Saturday at 8 pm in the Save Mart Center, before opening up their home schedule November 10 against Northwest Christian.