Box Score

Winona Lake, Ind. - Fresno Pacific saw its season come to an end on Saturday, falling 91-82 in the third-place game at the NCCAA Tournament to defending national champion Cedarville in what was a disappointing end to an amazing first season of NCAA Division II play.

FPU finished the season with a 21-9 record, a second-place finish out of 14 teams in the Pacific West Conference, an undefeated home record and an NCCAA West Region championship. It was the final game for four FPU seniors: Antonio Credit, Zach Kaul, Matt Samuels and Rickey Vick.

"I'm proud of the season we had this year," said head coach Chris Wright. "To go out and win 21 games in our first year of Division II and finish second in the PacWest is quite a feat. I told our seniors they have absolutely nothing to hang their heads about, we had an outstanding season."

The Sunbirds (21-9) didn't look like themselves in the first half, shooting just 30 percent from the field and falling behind 44-30 at the break.

Cedarville (22-9) continued to pour it on in the second half as the Sunbirds found themselves down by 21, 59-38 with 15:39 to play. But then things began to click as the Sunbirds began to look the part of the high-octane offensive juggernaut they've been all season. Malcolm Griffin drained a three, the team started to play ferocious defense leading to transition buckets, and John Taylor began scoring at will. In an eight-minute span FPU outscored the Yellow Jackets 29-10 and when Taylor hit a three with 7:41 remaining it was suddenly a one-possession game with FPU trailing 69-67.

That would be as close as the Sunbirds would come however as Cedarville responded with a 7-0 run to extend the lead to nine. FPU got within five multiple times in the closing minutes but couldn't pull any closer.

Taylor led the way with 37 points, 29 coming in the second half. Griffin added 13 and senior Antonio Credit had nine points and 13 rebounds in his final college game. Credit will graduate as the program's all-time leader in career field-goal percentage (67.7%), shattering the previous record of 60.2% held by Don Moore (1991-96).

Taylor finished the year as the program's single-season record holder in points scored (825), points per game (27.5), field goals made (263) and free-throws made (216).

Next season will be the final year that FPU will be ineligible for NCAA postseason play as it completes the transition from the NAIA. Three PacWest teams made the NCAA tournament this season, all teams that FPU defeated, and all three lost in the first round.