SAN RAFAEL, Calif.- Early turnovers prevented the Fresno Pacific Sunbirds (15-6 overall, 9-4 PacWest) from building a lead before the Dominican Penguins (17-5 overall, 10-4 PacWest) used a big night at the free-throw line to snap FPU's three-game win streak with a 65-59 loss Thursday night at the Conlan Center.

"Not a great performance of toughness from us tonight," head coach Tim Beauregard said. "We had too many possessions of letting Dominican dictate our timing and spacing. We simply didn't meet the challenge of their aggressiveness which caused way too many turnovers."

Felicia Dourva and Maesyn Rix combined for the first four points of the game and FPU kept Dominican without a bucket for the first couple of minutes.

The Penguins grabbed the lead behind a 7-0 run over the next minute before things leveled out.

The Sunbirds wound up with a 58% FG in the first quarter but clung to just a two point lead 16-14 at the end of the period.

Dominican opened the second quarter with an 11-2 run because of 13 FPU turnovers before the 2^nd quarter media timeout.

That stretched the difference to a 7-point Dominican lead before Bre Hurt and Lydia Manu cut the difference to just three points.

After Dominican free-throws pushed it to five, Dourva buried a three-pointer to pull FPU back within two.

FPU saw the difference slip back to four before an Aaliyah Seuell three-pointer made it a one-point game.

But the Penguins added free-throws just before the half to hold a 31-28 lead over FPU, turning 13 FPU turnovers into 13 points.

The Sunbirds worked at the difference with Manu getting an and-1 layup and then a turnaround bank shot from the block that tightened the game to one point.

Green quickly added a layup after a steal to give FPU the lead just three minutes into the half.

Dominican regained the lead on a three-pointer and held the 38-36 advantage at the media timeout in the third.

The Dominican lead grew to as much as eight but hung at six points at the conclusion of the third, with a Dourva floater getting FPU a bit closer.

In the fourth, Hurt started the FPU offense with a pair of buckets around another Dominican three-pointer.

The Dominican lead still managed to get to 9 at the midway point of the fourth and held that advantage with just 2:40 to play.

Another Dourva three trimmed the gap to just six points with less than two minutes to play.

After Dominican free-throws, a Manu three-point play after a foul made it a four point game with a minute and a half to go.

With late game fouling, a Maesyn Rix putback pulled the game to three-points before more Dominican free-throws.

But that's as close as it would get as the Penguins iced the game at the line.

"It's nice to know that even though we didn't play our best basketball," Beauregard added. "We never let them stretch the game out of reach. We stayed confident and together in the face of adversity and it gave us a chance at the end. We lost a game to a top team in our conference and region by 5, this on a night we didn't play well. That's definitely going to keep us confident."

Dourva led the Sunbirds with 13 points while Rix, Green and Manu each added ten points.

Rix finished with her 9^th double-double of the season by grabbing a game high 14 rebounds.

The loss snaps FPU's three-game win streak and allows Dominican to leapfrog the 'Birds for 2^nd place in the PacWest.

"It's a quick turnaround and every game is and will continue to be the most important game of our season going forward. We won't flinch in our togetherness and our chase," Beauregard concluded. "Back on track Saturday and everything we want is still well within reach."

Fresno Pacific will aim to bounce back Saturday when they head to Oakland to play the Academy of Art at 1 p.m.

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