Box Score

Riverside, Calif. - One of the toughest road environments in the league combined with the crisp ball movement of the California Baptist offense would be too much for Fresno Pacific to overcome on Tuesday night as the Sunbirds fell 93-75 to the Lancers in the PacWest conference opener.

The Sunbirds (4-4) had no answer for CBU center Luke Evans, who had 30 points to lead the undefeated Lancers (6-0). Matt Samuels led FPU with 19 points while John Taylor added 17, his lowest point total of the season thus far. Malcolm Griffin battled foul trouble all night, eventually fouling out with seven points, also a season-low.

FPU trailed for most of the night, getting within five at 63-58 after an Anthony Brant three-pointer with 9:25 remaining but would be unable to pull any closer after an 11-2 CBU run. Minutes later the Lancers had opened up a 20-point lead to put the game well out of reach.

"We have a bunch of good players, but we are extremely selfish right now and refuse to play together," said head coach Chris Wright afterward. "We are still not nearly as tough as we need to be. We kept beating ourselves all night. Every time we would make a run we would have a defensive breakdown."

Defensively the Sunbirds were no match for the Lancer offense as CBU shot 58 percent from the field and 63 percent from three-point range in the victory. Evans led four Lancers to finish in double figures, with guard Anthony Cosentino adding 19 in the win.

The Sunbirds meanwhile connected on just 3-of-18 from long range and were plagued with poor shot selection throughout the night. FPU had a team-high seven rebounds from Antonio Credit, who added nine points in the loss. Samuels finished with a team-best six assists.

The Sunbirds will look to get back on track tomorrow night as they take on a 1-9 Bethesda team in a non-conference game at 7 pm. The game can be watched for free at fpuathletics.com.