Box Score

Fresno Pacific gave second-place Chaminade all it could handle on Monday night, but the Silverswords pulled away in the final minute to defeat the Sunbirds 83-78.

Malcolm Griffin had 20 points and nine assists to lead the Sunbirds, who shot 54 percent from the field as a team but dropped to 5-12, 0-9 in PacWest play. Trevon Clayton added 19 points and Jackson Carbajal had 16 in the loss.

FPU took a 60-59 lead with 12:55 to go after a three-point play by Griffin and kept it a one-possession game for most of the way down the stretch. The team trailed just 78-76 with 1:15 remaining but missed shots on its next two possessions, forcing the Sunbirds to foul.

"This was a tough one because our guys left it all out on the court," said head coach Chris Wright. "Playing a few guys down, a couple of our guys played a full 40 minutes and still put us in position to win. We're doing a good job of working of creating open shots but they're just not falling the way you would expect them to when you're playing at home. We'll regroup and get ready for a tough HPU team on Thursday."

Drew Packard had nine points and Phillip Randles added eight off the bench for FPU, both career highs.

"It was really good to see those guys get it going on the offensive end," said Wright. "Phil is a tremendous shooter and I knew it was just a matter of time before he'd hit some big shots for us."

Randles connected on back-to-back three-pointers midway through the second half that trimmed the Chaminade lead from seven to one.

Lee Bailey had 24 points to lead the Silverswords (11-6, 8-1 PacWest). Chaminade controlled the glass, out-rebounding FPU 37-23.

The Sunbirds face another talented team from the islands on Thursday when they host Hawaii Pacific at 7:30 pm.