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Megan Rose
John Taylor led all scorers with 26 points but the Sunbirds would fall in the closing seconds at Grand Canyon.

Men's Basketball

Sunbirds lead until final minute, fall 75-73 at Grand Canyon

Box Score

Fresno Pacific nearly knocked off another PacWest power, taking Grand Canyon to the limit on its home court and leading for all but one minute of Monday night's 75-73 loss. John Taylor had 26 points to lead FPU.

Malcolm Griffin, coming off a buzzer-beating shot to defeat Dixie State last week, had a chance to win it in the closing seconds, but a second consecutive game-winner wasn't to be as his jumper rattled out.

"Obviously Dixie State and Grand Canyon have been the class of the PacWest and so for us to compete the way we have the last two games is encouraging," said head coach Chris Wright. "There are no moral victories though and we absolutely have to close out a game like this. We reverted to some bad habits down the stretch."

FPU led 73-67 with two minutes remaining but late three-pointers allowed the Antelopes (11-2, 3-0 PacWest) to close the game on an 8-0 run and escape with their 10th straight win.

The Sunbirds (6-5, 1-2 PacWest) contested nearly every shot on defense and held GCU to a season-low 33% from the field, but were out-rebounded 55-38 in the loss.

"Defensively I was really proud of the way we played," said Wright. "To hold a team that scores the ball as well as GCU does to 33% is quite a feat on the road. If we can continue to bring that kind of defensive intensity and pay attention to details we are going to be really hard to beat."

FPU led by as many as nine in the first half and took a 38-32 lead into the locker room. The Lopes tied it early in the second half but Taylor fueled a 16-2 run by FPU that gave the Sunbirds a 54-40 lead with 13:43 left after a three by Griffin.

The Sunbirds still led by 14 with under 12 minutes to play and by 12 with under ten minutes to play after an Anthony Brant three. GCU went on a 13-2 run however to cut the lead to one before FPU brought it back up to six. The Lopes, who were 4-for-21 from three-point range at that point, then hit two three-pointers in the final two minutes, taking the lead for good on a trey by Joshua Lowery with 59 seconds left.

Lowery had 21 points to lead the Lopes. Killian Larson added 14 points and 16 rebounds for GCU.

Griffin had 11 points and eight rebounds for FPU to complement Taylor's 26. Antonio Credit led the team with nine rebounds. Credit had eight points and Matt Samuels added nine.

The Sunbirds will come out of the Christmas break with a December 28 exhibition at NCAA Division I Pepperdine in Malibu.
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