FRESNO, Calif.-After weathering a first half in which its opponents shot the lights out, the Fresno Pacific Sunbirds (12-3 overall, 6-1 PacWest) gutted out a 68-64 win over the Point Loma Sea Lions (8-8 overall, 4-4 PacWest) Saturday afternoon at the Special Events Center.
Fresno Pacific found itself down nine at the half as Point Loma shot 64% from the field over the first ten minutes.
The Sea Lions had a number of players in foul trouble after 9 first quarter fouls but maintained the advantage by marching right to the basket for layups.
Point Loma led for the three and a half quarter before Fresno Pacific flipped the game upside down.
The Sunbirds locked down the Sea Lions in the third quarter and made the game a defensive slug fest in the third period.
FPU held PLNU to 2 of 15 shooting in the third period and outscored their guests by eight points in the period to pull within a point at the start of the fourth quarter.
From there,
Felicia Dourva over a majority of the scoring for FPU.
Dourva had 12 of her game-high 20 points in the final period.
The final period also turned into a foul-shooting competition with each team getting double-digit free-throw attempts in the fourth quarter.
But Fresno Pacific's defense carried through at the end as PLNU was held to 1-12 from three in the second half after it had hit on four of its first six threes in the first half.
Its just the fourth time this season that FPU was outrebounded, losing the battle on the boards, 31-23.
But FPU ended up shooting a high field goal percentage (45%-41%) thanks to its strong second half and ultimately made one more basket and two more free-throws to provide the difference on the scoreboard.
Dourva led with 20 points while
Bre Hurt was the only other Sunbird in double-figures with 13.
Lydia Manu was a huge part of the Sunbirds effort, grabbing six offensive rebounds and chipping in 9 points.
Fresno Pacific avenges a four-point road loss from ten days earlier in San Diego, but has won three in a row heading into a battle against the only PacWest team ahead of them in the standings next Thursday.
FPU's trip to conference leading Azusa Pacific on Thursday will kick off a quick two-game SoCal Swing that concludes in Irvine against Concordia on Saturday.
The 'Birds return home to open up a four-game homestand on January 25
th against Westmont.
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