Fresno Pacific battled back from a 14-point deficit early but was unable to hang on as the Sunbirds fell 87-64 to the Dixie State Red Storm.

Keairra White led the way for Fresno Pacific (0-8, 0-2) with 22 points on 5-11 shooting. The Sunbirds had three scorers in double-digits for the first time this season as Breana Buczek dropped 12 and Jenay Herring chipped in 10 in her first game back from a rib injury.

"It's great to have Jenay back," said head coach Erin Scholz. "We just need to now work her back into the new chemistry of the team. We don't need anyone to be the backbone of our offense or be a hero for us. It's just about continuing to do what we can do and setup our teammates."

The Red Storm were led by a season high 22 points from Erica Hayes and 17 points and 13 rebounds from Johnna Brown, the teams leading scorer on the season.

The Sunbirds were down by as many as 14 in the first half before FPU used a 21-12 run to close the DSC lead to just five at the half.

Fresno Pacific took the lead early in the second half as much as three at 41-38 before Dixie State went on a 16-0 run to blow the game open.

The Sunbirds closed the gap to as few as 13 but were never able to recover from the run and shot just 30-percent from the floor in the second half and just 10-percent from three on 1-10 shooting.

Dixie State was able to shoot 58-percent from the floor in the second half despite shooting just 1-5 from deep. The Red Storm used easy transition buckets to push their lead and outscored the Sunbirds 24-8 in that category for the game.

All told the Red Storm outscored FPU 49-31 in the frame in the win.

"We just need to be a team that is going to get after it on defense no matter what," said Scholz. "When we don't have an offensive flow we have got to generate momentum from defensive stops and not let it be the other way around and feed off our offense."

Fresno Pacific will be back in action next Saturday against No. 18 Grand Canyon in Phoenix, Ariz.