Fresno Pacific, for the second straight night, was unable to overcome a balanced scoring attack from Northwest Nazarene as the Sunbirds fell 85-62.

Charde Stevens led the way for FPU (0-2) with 19 points and 10 rebounds in the losing effort. It was a solid bounce-back effort after a four point five rebound effort in last nights loss to the Crusaders (2-0).

“We are having some individual successes you can see some of them wrestling with certain things,” said head coach Erin Scholz. “Hopefully sooner rather than later we will have a team that is having some individual victories that will lead to some team victories for us.”

Keairra White added 15 on 6-17 shooting but turned the ball over nine times. Jenay Herring and Keri Stephanoff each chipped in 11 points and Herring shot 50-percent from the floor on 5-10 shooting.

The Sunbirds were unable to find a grove offensively for the second straight night and shot just 24-70 for 34.3-percent from the field including just 24-perecent, 6-25, from three-point range.

Conversely, Northwest Nazarene shot just over 47-percent from the floor and had 42 points in the paint, a ten point advantage over the Sunbirds. NNU got 17 points from Chelsie Luke to go along with Hington's 21 on the night.

Fresno Pacific started the game with high energy at both ends of the floor and their pressure led to an early lead a few minutes into the game. But a myriad of turnovers and tough shot attempts allowed the Crusaders to jump out to a lead as big as 14.

But the Sunbirds showed guts pulling NNU back with a 14-6 run to close out the half thanks to good play on both ends by Breana Buczek. She finished the game with two points, eight rebounds and four steals for the Sunbirds.

Out of the break the Sunbirds once again hung around early but a 15-0 nothing spurt early on in the half put the game out of reach. Taylor Simmons scored seven points during the run for Northwest Nazarene.

“If we don't see a response in practice or in the next game to things we have been harping on then we have an issue as a team,” said Scholz.

Fresno Pacific will play four out of their five games away from home and have just two home games remaining in 2012.

“We really need to grow as a team,” said Scholz. “I think this road trip will be good for that, but we have to be intentional about it.”

The Sunbirds will look to get their first win of the young season against Cal Poly Pomona this Wednesday in Pomona, Calif.