TURLOCK, Calif. – After a slow start to the game, the Fresno Pacific Sunbirds (4-2 overall) made a strong comeback on Wednesday night at Stanislaus State (3-2 overall) but fell short 67-60 heading into the Thanksgiving break.

"We've learned a couple of hard lessons early on this year, and tonight was definitely one of those lessons," head coach Tim Beauregard said. "At our level of basketball, if you do not honor the opportunity to play each night, you will be humbled. We started the game very disengaged collectively, and because of that, we dug ourselves in a hole that we could not dig out of. Stretches of really good basketball and a lock-in defensively in quarters 2-4 was not enough to climb out."

It was all Warriors to open the contest, as they outscored the Sunbirds 25-5 in the period.

FPU started to come alive in the second quarter, outscoring Stanislaus State 19-17 with a pair of 3-pointers from Sara Lundqvist to open the period. The 'Birds shot 11-of-12 from the charity stripe but still trailed by 18 points at halftime.

It was the second half where the Sunbirds really blossomed. FPU shot over 40 percent from the field while going 6-of-9 from behind the arc. Defensively, they held the Warriors to just 27-percent shooting and forcing seven of their 22 turnovers in the period alone.

The quarter started with a quick 6-2 run behind two 3-pointers from Joleen Corona to cut the lead to 14 points. From there, FPU went on a 13-6 run over the last 5:36, and they went from trailing by 18 points at halftime to just down six points heading into the final 10 minutes.

To open the final period, Stanislaus State made a quick bucket to go up eight points, but a layup from Maesyn Rix and another 3-pointer from Lundqvist cut the deficit to just three points with 8:42 to go. The Warriors built their lead back up to six with 4:54 to go in the contest, but a pair of free throws from Lundqvist and a jumper from Felicia Dourva made it a two-point game with just over three minutes left.

A made jumper from the Warriors extended their lead, and free throws down the stretch were able to put the game out of reach and give them the win.

"I was proud of our resolve and fight to make it a game, but we know we will have to be better the rest of the year in order to get where we want to," Beauregard added. "We will get right back to work on Friday with a level of enthusiasm for the work that needs to be accomplished in order to play better games going forward. There is no flinch in our dream chase. We just plan to focus on honoring the opportunites more and being more prepared tomorrow than we were today."

Lundqvist scored a team-high 17 points on five made 3-pointers and six rebounds. Rachel Berry added 15 points, five rebounds and a pair of assists.

Corona had a strong game off the bench, scoring 11 points and pulling down eight rebounds.

The Sunbirds will be back in action on Sunday in an exhibition at CSU Bakersfield starting at 1 p.m. before they enter PacWest play with a matchup at home against Biola on December 1. Tip-off at the Special Events Center is scheduled for 5 p.m.

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