HONOLULU-A 42-point explosion in the second half helped the Fresno Pacific Sunbirds (6-2 overall, 2-0 PacWest) overcame a double-digit halftime deficit to beat the Hawai'i Pacific Sharks (2-5 overall, 1-1 PacWest) 57-47 Monday night in the Shark Tank.

Fresno Pacific's slow start offensively gave way in the second half, but the defense suffocated the Sharks, and the bench came with a scoring explosion in the second half.

After trading buckets early between Julie Ramirez and the Sharks, HPU hit a three to gain a slight edge.

The Sharks got to the basket again after the first wave of subs for both teams, but Joleen Corona came in and hit a three for FPU and forced a turnover that led to a transition layup for Lydia Manu.

Hawai'i Pacific hit another three to take a 10-7 lead at the first media timeout.

The Sharks added seven more points for a 10-0 run to close out the quarter with FPU in a 17-7 deficit.

Maesyn Rix scored the first basket of the second quarter to snap the drought.

HPU reset the lead to 10 and maintained it for the first couple minutes of the quarter.

The Sharks pushed it to as much as 16 before Rix hit a jumper for the Sunbirds.

Fresno Pacific shot just 24% from the field in the half and trailed 27-15 at the break.

The start of the third was a slugfest with the Sunbirds holding the Sharks without a field goal for the first six minutes of the period.

A Felicia Dourva three-pointer and a layup by Olivia Garcia were the only baskets of that stretch.

Jasmine Heu then hit FPU's first free-throw attempts of the game with 4:06 remaining in the third to cut the difference to eight points.

After a few more free-throws for FPU, Bre Hurt's and-1 trimmed the difference to three points.

A technical foul against the Sunbirds created a four-point swing with Hurt answering back with a bucket and a Julie Ramirez three getting the game back within four points.

At the end of the quarter, Corona drew a foul on a three-point attempt and hit all of the free throws to bring FPU within a single point.

The Sunbirds would swing momentum drastically in the fourth with an Anisa Rillo steal and score giving FPU its first lead.

Garcia drilled a three and Rix hit a jumper to stretch FPU's first lead to 42-36 with seven minutes remaining in the game.

After HPU chewed the lead down to five, a Felicia Dourva runner as the shot clock was expiring put FPU back 50-43 with a minute and a half left.

The Sharks hit another layup, but Corona drilled a three from the left wing to push the lead to 8 points with less than a minute to go.

That helped FPU salt away the lead over the final 45 seconds.

Felicia Dourva led the scoring for Fresno Pacific with 11 points while six others made multiple field goals.

Corona led the bench scoring with nine of the reserves 22 points.

Hurt also had nine points while Rix added six points and nine boards.

But it was the FPU defense that really buckled down. The Sunbirds held their opponents to just 7-30 from the field in the final 20 minutes and made the comeback possible.

That also led to some high quality offense and the Sunbirds were 13-21 from the field including four of their five threes in the contest.

The Sunbirds will head to the big island for the final game of the road trip as they take on Hawai'i Hilo Wednesday night.

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