HONOLULU, Hawai'i-Despite a strong first half, the Fresno Pacific Sunbirds (8-17 overall, 5-13 PacWest) were out dueled in the second half of a 81-69 loss to the Chaminade Silverswords (14-14 overall, 9-11 PacWest) Wednesday night at McCabe Gymnasium.

The Sunbirds dominated the interior in the first-half but the hosts shot the lights out in the second to prevent FPU from escaping Hawai'i with a second win on the road trip.

"Really strong first half performance," Fresno Pacific head coach C.J. Haydock said. "Disciplined, together, quality execution on offense. Then, in the second half when they got rolling, we really hurt ourselves with poor shot selection and the ball stalled out which let them get out in transition and flex us on defense and extended that lead further than we should have let it. We just flinched a little bit and it showed."

Spencer Heimerdinger scored Fresno Pacific's first four points and Marten Maide chipped in another basket, but Chaminade used three offensive rebounds to hold an 8-6 lead over the five six minutes.

Darrin Person Jr. and Kyle Monk got hot over the next four minutes, sparking a 13-8 stretch for the Sunbirds that put Fresno Pacific in front 19-17 midway through the first half.

Chaminade's entire offense was reliant on the three, which they made five, to keep it a one possession game.

The Silverswords hit another three after the under eight timeout to take a 22-21 lead.

The Sunbirds scored the next eight points as Ryas Vang hit a pair of threes and Fresno Pacific leapt in front 29-24.

Ryan Abbott added a pair of big buckets and D.J. Searcy scored as FPU closed the half with a seven point lead.

Fresno Pacific was dominant in the paint throughout the first half as Person Jr. and Abbot helped the Sunbirds score 28 points in the paint while Chaminade had just 10 points in the paint.

Chaminade came out firing in the second half, continuing to connect from deep but adding an interior presence that turned into a 25-10 run over the first seven minutes of the period.

The Silverswords not only found their rhythm inside but they hit five of seven threes to start the second half and built a fourteen point lead.

Another 8-0 run separated the difference to eighteen with less than five and a half to play.

Nate Kendricks helped chip away at the difference to shrink the gap to 12.

But Chaminade shot over 66% from the field in the second half and hit twelve threes in the game to ignite its offense.

Fresno Pacific did have some terrific individual performances with Kendricks leading the way with 17 points, 5 rebounds and four assists.

Abbott finished with 12 points and 8 boards while Kyle Monk finished with 12 points as well.

"I thought Nate Kendricks, Ryan Abbott and Spencer Heimerdinger steadied us in the second half," Haydock said. "They put us on a nice run to crawl back but we just ran out of time."

Fresno Pacific scored 48 points in the paint for the game but that category was muted in the second half as Chaminade scored 20 of its 51 second half points up close as well.

The Silverswords were also 13 of 16 at the line in the final half as well.

Fresno Pacific heads back to California for the final road game of the year at the Academy of Art on Thursday February 23^rd in the Bay Area.

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