FRESNO, Calif. - Fresno Pacific avenged a 25-point loss from Saturday night at Dominican by defeating the Penguins 87-77 in the rematch at FPU on Wednesday night. Roger Paul led the way with a season-high 28 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field, 3-for-3 from long-range and 9-for-10 from the line.

FPU improves to 7-13 overall and 3-10 in league play, while DUC falls to 9-13 overall and 6-8 in the PacWest.

"I'm very proud of our guys for bouncing back from Saturday," said head coach Shane Rinner. "It's hard to play back-to-back for both teams, but we came out and believed we could beat Dominican. We executed in the first half once again, but tonight we finished the game."

The Sunbirds led 33-26 at halftime and by as many as 16 points in the second half. The Penguins would pull within five multiple times in the final minutes but were unable to get any closer. DUC trailed by five with 3:09 remaining following a three, but Paul responded with a three-point play for the Sunbirds to swing momentum back in their favor. FPU nailed free-throws down the stretch to hold its lead and earn the win.

Bobby Barnes and Madison Higgins added 18 points apiece for FPU and Trevon Clayton pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds. Higgins and Clayton dished out a co-team high four assists, while Jeff Amazan scored nine points off the bench for the Sunbirds.

FPU shot 54% on the night and 47% from three-point range and added 14 team assists. The Sunbirds bounced back from last Saturday when they shot 38% and dished out three assists, both of which were season lows.

FPU outscored DUC 41-30 in the paint and got to the free-throw line 35 times. The Sunbirds converted 25 times from the charity stripe.

"We did a great job of post defense tonight," said Rinner. "We understood their personnel and followed the game plan."  
Matt Hayes led the Penguins with 23 points.

The Sunbirds head down South to take on Point Loma on Friday (7:30 pm) and St. Katherine on Saturday (3:00 pm).