SAN DIEGO-In a year of firsts for the Fresno Pacific Sunbirds Women's Basketball team, it was the familiar toughness and depth throughout a physical game that knocked out the Point Loma Sea Lions 63-61 and advance FPU to the Finals of the PacWest Basketball Tournament Friday evening at Golden Gymnasium.

The 'Birds made clutch free-throws in the final minutes and got clutch stops to hold off host Point Loma in a see-saw battle that never swayed beyond two possessions in its entirety.

Bre Hurt started the scoring for FPU by working her way into the paint and powering in a layup for the first points of the game.

After PLNU took a 5-2 lead, Jasmine Heu knocked down a three from the left win to tie the game at 5.

On the next possession, Lydia Manu banked in a twisting runner to regain the lead for Fresno Pacific at 7-5.

Point Loma tied the game with free-throws before Joleen Corona knocked down a three to put FPU back up 10-7.

The Sea Lions scored two more at the line and added a transition bucket before Felicia Dourva answered right back with a layup to put FPU up 12-11.

PLNU would add five more free throws to take a 16-12 lead.

Alyssa Kem added a free-throw to make a three-point game, but Point Loma added a layup to take an 18-13 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Point Loma started the second quarter with another free-throw before an Anisa Rillo put back pulled FPU within four.

Julie Ramirez hit a three after Point Loma's layup to shave another point off the lead at 21-18.

FPU trailed by five when Rillo's three-point play made it 23-21.

The difference was five again before Manu drilled a three to bring it back to 27-25.

Jayla Green tied the game with a steal and a layup on the other end.

Point Loma hit a three, but Green fought to the basket for a tough layup to cut it back to a one-point game.

Dourva made an acrobatic layup to put FPU up by a point with a minute left.

That held up as FPU took a 31-30 lead into the locker room.

The Sunbirds came out in the second half and built their largest lead of the game behind free-throws from Bre Hurt and Rillo.

Jayla Green extended the lead to 36-30 before PLNU went on an 8-0 run to regain the lead.

A three-point play by Dourva put FPU back in front 39-38.

Julie Ramirez knocked down a pair of free-throws but hit a corner three that pushed FPU's lead back to 44-38 with three minutes remaining in the third quarter.

PLNU would chip away at the lead from the free-throw line to make it a four-point game.

A layup by the Sea Lions cut it to two points by the end of the quarter.

FPU added a Dourva free-throw to start the fourth, but a PLNU layup made it a one-point game again.

Green cruised to the basked to extend the lead to three points with just under eight minutes remaining.

Rillo then swiped a steal and worked the ball down the floor to Dourva to make it a five-point game with 7:23 to play.

After a timeout, PLNU answered with a layup and then grabbed the offensive board, but FPU forced the shot clock violation to maintain a three-point lead.

Point Loma trimmed the difference to just a point before Dourva hit a three and a step back to sandwich a PLNU layup and extend FPU's lead to four.

A Maesyn Rix free-throw pushed it to five with less than three minutes to play but PLNU answered back with a layup.

Heu hit a pair of free-throws to put the lead back at five.

The FPU lead shrank to one over the next minute before Dourva's jumper provided a three-point cushion with just over a minute to play.

Point Loma immediately responded with a bucket of its own and the game came down to defensive stops at the end.

The Sea Lions got a stop and had the ball with 16 seconds but missed a contested layup and the deflected ball went out of bounds off Point Loma.

Jasmine Heu hit a free-throw to extend the lead to 62-60 with six seconds remaining before a foul put PLNU at the line with a second left.

The Sea Lions missed both and FPU secured the game and its first trip to the Finals of the PacWest Championships in program history.

Everybody made significant contributions for FPU on Friday night.

Dourva led the way with a game-high 17 points, on a hyper efficient 7-13 from the field.

Julie Ramirez was the next highest scorer for FPU with 11 points on three of four from deep. Four other Sunbirds combined to knock down threes.

Maesyn Rix had a game-high 14 rebounds.

Rillo had a game-high 4 steals leading FPU's eight on the evening. The 'Birds forced twice as many turnovers, 16, as the eight they committed.

The Sunbirds will meet the regular season champion Azusa Pacific Cougars in the Finals on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. in a match-up of the top two seeds.

The game will take place in Point Loma's Golden Gymnasium after the Men's Final between Azusa Pacific and Point Loma.

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