SAN RAFAEL, Calif.- The Fresno Pacific Sunbirds (6-15 overall, 4-9 PacWest) youth continued to lead the scoring, but struggled to do enough of it in a 71-59 loss to the Dominican Penguins (8-14 overall, 5-9 PacWest) Thursday night in the Conlan Center.

Sophomore Isaac Peralta and Redshirt Freshman Harrison Pennisi combined for 29 points but FPU struggled to supplement the underclassmen.

The Sunbirds fell into a 13-4 deficit at the start of the game.

Peralta scored the first six points for FPU and Gabe Quiette tacked on a layup to cut the gap to five points.

The 'Birds 7-0 run tied the game at 15 before some back and forth finally saw FPU grab its first lead with seven minutes remaining in the half on a Harrison Pennisi bucket to
make it 21-20.

But Dominican closed the half by making three of its last four shots to grab a 33-29 advantage at the break.

Dominican opened up their advantage with a 9-0 to start the second half.

The Penguins march continued out to a 14-point lead at 48-34 before the 'Birds whittled it down to an eight point difference.

That would be as close as FPU would get as Dominican duplicated its 46.4% field goal percentage from the first half with an identical 13-28 2^nd half, but tacked on nine free-throws.

That was more than enough to keep FPU at bay.

Harrison Pennisi led the way with 15 points while Isaac Peralta added 14 for the Sunbirds.

Fresno Pacific heads over to Oakland to play the Academy of Art at 3:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon.

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