Box Score
BELMONT, Calif. - Fresno Pacific outscored Notre Dame de Namur 15-7 over the last five minutes to claim a key PacWest road victory on Thursday night, 76-71 over the Argos. It was the third straight win for the Sunbirds (8-12, 3-9 PacWest), who came back from a 12-point second half deficit to pull out the victory.
"It's hard to go on the road and win in this conference," said head coach Chris Wright. "This was a great team win. Everyone that played, and even the guys on the sidelines, brought a lot of energy and were really pulling for each other. I'm really proud of their effort tonight."
FPU trailed by two at halftime and the Argos would jump out to an early second half lead, going up by as many as 12 and still leading 55-45 with 11 minutes to play.
"We were really flat in the first half," said Wright. "
Phillip Randles hit a couple big threes to keep us in it. In the second half, the hustle and effort really picked up. The guys were playing hard and it showed in the stat sheet as we had 10 offensive rebounds after not having any in the first half."
Five players scored in double figures for the Sunbirds, led by
Jonathan Jefferson with 16 points.
Malcolm Griffin added 14 points and eight assists,
Jackson Carbajal and
Johnell Thompson scored 11 points apiece and
Phil Jackson added 10.
Carbajal drained an NBA-range three with 3:21 remaining to give FPU's its first lead of the half at 66-64, a lead they wouldn't relinquish.
Simon Enciso did all he could for the Argos (6-12, 5-7 PacWest), scoring a game-high 33 points in the loss.
The Sunbirds will be back in the Bay Area this Saturday to take on Holy Names in Oakland at 4 pm, a team they lost to 85-79 in Fresno on January 8.
"HNU did a really good job at our place," said Wright. "Since then, we've gotten a couple guys healthy and we're able to play more of a rotation. I feel like we're more of a team than we were even just a couple weeks ago. Our guys are really supporting each other. They've been through some adversity this year and it's made us all closer."
