TURLOCK, Calif.-A pair of turnover-filled runs in each half plagued the Fresno Pacific Sunbirds (0-1 overall) in a 71-60 loss to the Cal State East Bay Pioneers (1-0 overall) at the Stanislaus State Crossover Classic inside Fitzpatrick Arena Friday night.
The Sunbirds' season debut featured a pair of stellar individual debuts but was sullied by 24 turnovers. Grad transfer
Michael Mensah displayed his long range shooting while freshman
Isaac Peralta caused the defense nightmares with his drives to the rim.
Still, it was turnovers that stalled the FPU offense.
"This was just a really disjoined effort from us," Fresno Pacific head coach
C.J. Haydock said after the game. "I thought East Bay was very well prepared, and really, the tougher team."
After a series of delays, the Sunbirds established their pace and broke out of a 5-5 tie with three straight buckets.
After
Michael Mensah dropped in a three-pointer for the first points of the season, FPU received buckets from 4 of 5 starters to deliver an 11-5 start.
Darrin Person Jr. began to establish his scoring early, scoring 6 of Fresno Pacific's first 15 points.
Spencer Heimerdinger would score to give FPU its fifth starter with a bucket, but Sunbird turnovers began to pile up.
Those turnovers turned into points for the Pioneers, turning a six-point lead for FPU into one point at the under 8 timeout.
East Bay closed the half on a 25-7 run in the final ten minutes of the half as the converted 10 Sunbird turnovers into 15 points.
FPU found itself down 36-27 at the half.
Despite just shooting 1-6 from three in the first half, Mensah hit a pair of threes out of the gate as the Sunbirds cut into the deficit.
The Sunbirds hit 6 of their first 9 shots in the second half and slashed East Bay's advantage down to two, on two occasions, before finally tying it up behind a pair of Person Jr. free-throws.
But East Bay scored a pair of buckets in a plodding, foul-filled segment before Mensah hit his fifth three of the game to get FPU back within one.
Mensah also flashed the defensive skills, creating a turnover, which lead to Person Jr. getting a foul and a game-tying free-throw on the other end.
Turnovers started to plague FPU again in the 2
nd half, as East Bay inched ahead by five.
FPU turned the ball over 11 more times as East Bay turned the 24 total turnovers into 31 points.
That contributed to FPU getting 20 less shots than their opponents and negated the Sunbirds' 46% shooting percentage.
"They prevented us any opportunity to find a rhythm and we turned the ball over way too much," Haydock said of his opponents.
Mensah's 15 points on a perfect 5-5 from deep was 2
nd on FPU next to Person Jr.'s 16 points on 8-10 from the free-throw line.
Peralta added 13 points in his collegiate debut.
"There were some good stretches of play from our team tonight," Haydock added. "We will quickly address what we need to."
Fresno Pacific will bounce right back as it takes on host Stanislaus State Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. inside Fitzpatrick Arena.
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