FRESNO, Calif.-41 bench points proved invaluable as a rested Fresno Pacific Sunbirds (13-5 overall, 7-3 PacWest) held off the Westmont Warriors (6-12 overall, 3-8 PacWest) 58-48 Thursday afternoon in the Special Events Center.

"We needed a couple days off to refill our tanks," head coach Tim Beauregard said. "Make sure that we were still on the same page. There was no flinch in our locker room. We built enough of a lead to get through some of that ickiness at the end."

FPU took an extra day of rest after a grueling road trip to Southern California and looked fresh with eight first half three-pointers.

Three's by Felicia Dourva and Joleen Corona set FPU out in front before Westmont pulled within two.

Jasmine Heu's best night as a Sunbird started from the first quarter and Corona added another three, giving FPU four in the period, and a 16-6 lead.

The second quarter was much faster paced with Westmont preventing FPU from running away. The lead swelled to 14 but Wesmont brought it back to 7 before another Heu three-pointer.

Olivia Garcia and Heu closed out the half with threes, sandwiched around a Wesmont layup to hold an 11 point advantage at the break, 33-22.

Heu added another 3-pointer in the third but it was back-to-back threes by Olivia Garcia that pushed Fresno Pacific's lead to its largest at any point, an 18 point difference with 1:43 left in the quarter.

The Sunbirds reset the lead to 18 at the start of the fourth before a seven minute scoring drought put the game in doubt.

Westmont went on a 12-0 run in the fourth to cut the gap to just six points.

With 53 seconds remaining, Dourva hit a free-throw to end the dry spell. Anisa Rillo and Jayla Green added free-throws before a Green Layup reset the lead to 10 and finalized the score.

The Sunbirds won the game despite losing the rebounding battle for just the sixth time this season. FPU is now 3-3 in those games.

FPU was able to overcome the rebounding difference thanks to 41 bench points, a season high, led by Heu's 14.

"If a team is going to zone," Beauregard added. "You just have to connect passes. We felt like they were going to zone the whole game. Every pass you connect creates a higher percentage shot at the end. Everybody in the gym knows its going up."

Garcia was the second highest scorer with 10 while Corona and Green each chipped in six. Aaliyah Seuell hit a big, early three-pointer and Lydia Manu chipped in two points.

"We have some monsters on the bench," Beauregard added. "We just knows if they find rhythm, our team ceiling just explodes. When we shoot the ball well, we're tough. We just want to hunt good shots, and it was great to see some of those go in."

FPU is back at home on Saturday at 2:00 pm against Biola inside the Special Events Center.
 
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