Fresno Pacific remained winless on the season in bitter fashion as Kamie Imai nailed a buzzer-beating jumper to give Hawaii Hilo a 54-52 win. The Sunbirds were outshot from the floor 42.6-percent to 34.5-percent.

“It's not like we had a new game plan all the sudden (on the final shot),” said head coach Erin Scholz. “It was just this is going to be the hardest 14 second drill you've ever done.”

“It hurts. It just flat out hurts,” said Scholz.

Keairra White and Callie Kloubec both notched double-digit points for the Sunbirds (0-14, 0-7 PacWest) in the losing effort. For the first time this season FPU led at the half but they were unable to hold on in a back and forth second half.

The Vulcans (6-6, 3-3 PacWest) were led by a double-double from leading scorer Kamie Imai who totaled 14 points and 11 rebounds. Her sister Kirsty Imai led the team in scoring with 16 points, the only other UHH player in double digits.

Hawaii Hilo jumped out to a quick eight-point lead after the Sunbirds started just 3-11 from the floor. Fresno Pacific quickly answered back with 7-0 run to close the gap to one.

At the 4:20 mark in the first half the Sunbirds took the lead on a three-point shot by Keri Stephanoff. FPU continued to build on the lead, which ballooned to as high as eight points.

After halftime though UHH showed they were not going quietly and tied the game at 35-35 just over five minutes into the second half. The game went back and forth from that point with both teams making mini runs that would eventually be reigned in by the other. From the time the game was tied at 35 no team managed more than a three-point lead for the rest of the game.

With just under 1:50 remaining in the game the Imai sisters took over. Kirsty Imai hit a jumper with 1:12 left and after a free throw by White her sister Kamie hit the game winner on a pull up jumper from 11 feet.

“I'm not disappointed in our team and tonight wasn't a night where I went back into the locker room with a bunch of instruction or we should have done this or we should have done that,” said Scholz.  "Overall it was just really hard to see that last bucket drop."

The loss was the closest of the season for the Sunbirds who are still searching for win number one on the season. Their next shot will be Saturday when they play host to Chaminade in the Special Events Center at 2:30 pm.