HONOLULU-A tight, physical battle in the first half turned into a 66-55 win for the Fresno Pacific Sunbirds (5-2 overall, 1-0 PacWest) over the Chaminade Silverswords (2-5 overall, 0-2 PacWest) Saturday afternoon in McCabe Gymnasium.
A tight physical battle turned into a double-digit victory for Fresno Pacific as they controlled the glass on the road with a 50-35 advantage in rebounds.
The Sunbirds opened an early lead behind the arc and with tough defense.
Dourva knocked down a left wing three on the 'Birds first shot and possession of the game to kickstart the offense.
After a quick layup by Chaminade,
Anisa Rillo drilled another three for the left corner.
FPU held Chaminade to just 1-9 shooting over the first five minutes.
Jayla Green extended the lead to 8-2 with a layup before the first media timeout of the quarter at 4:37.
The Silverswords tied the game in the next three minutes at the free-throw line.
Chaminade would eventually take the lead at the free-throw line before
Bre Hurt hit an elbow jumper to tie it at 10 and then exchanged points at the end of the quarter for a 12- 12 opening period.
Fresno Pacific's defense was stifling in the first quarter with Chaminade limited to just 3-18 from the field and 0-5 from three.
After Chaminade made a layup to start the 2
nd, a Dourva jumper and a Rillo layup put Fresno Pacific back in front 16-14, but Chaminade matched the layup to tie the game again.
Rillo added another layup while
Joleen Corona and
Julie Ramirez added a pair of free-throws each as FPU wiggled back in front 22-19 at the second quarter media timeout.
An
Olivia Garcia three-pointer in transition and widened the advantage to 25-19.
Chaminade's offense found a groove at the end of the period, however, trimming the deficit to 28-27 at the half.
The Sunbirds marched the lead out to four points in the second half behind Hurt before Chaminade hit a pair of three's to take a 39-38 lead.
Back-to-back three's from
Aaliyah Seuell and Garcia reset the lead to 43-39 with less than two minutes in the third quarter.
The 'Birds eventually stretched the lead to 49-44 at the end of the third with Hurt pouring in 10 of 21 FPU points, giving her 12 total points through three quarters.
Garcia hit her third three of the game to start to fourth and stretch the FPU lead to its largest at that point, a 54-46 advantage.
Maesyn Rix added her first field goal of the game to push the lead to 10 with just under six minutes to play.
The Sunbirds closed out the final stretch by holding the Silverswords to another 20% quarter in the fourth, limiting Chaminade to just 3-15 shooting for the period.
Hurt ended as the leading scorer for FPU with 16 points and 7 rebounds while Dourva joined her in double figures, scoring 10 points.
Olivia Garcia and
Anisa Rillo added nine points a piece and
Lydia Manu scored 8.
One of the biggest advantages for FPU was on the glass where five different players had six or more rebounds.
Jayla Green led the effort for FPU with 9 rebounds to go with 5 points while Manu added 8 boards.
The Sunbirds hit the second game of the road trip on Monday night, wrapping up the Oahu leg of the trip against Hawai'i Pacific in the Shark Tank.
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