FRESNO, Calif. – Point Loma Nazarene battled but were playing catch-up for most of Saturday's Golden State Athletic Conference tilt at Fresno Pacific and ended up losing 89-78. The loss was the second straight for the Sea Lions which fell to 9-8 overall, 5-3 GSAC.

Todd Campbell made the first bucket of the game – the only time that PLNU would be in the lead for the next 23 minutes. The Sunbirds went out in front by as many as ten in the opening half but the Sea Lions were resilient and cut the gap to one after a 9-0 run.

FPU managed to stay ahead, though, and went into intermission with a 40-38 advantage. A pair of James Hancock jumpers quickly evened the score at the start of the second stanza. The two teams traded points for the next few minutes until a Greg Murray three put Loma up 47-46.

Matt Chistman sank a three for Fresno on the next possession which was countered by a Campbell layup. A pair of free throws by Jordan Wild put the Sunbirds in the lead for good.

Loma fell behind by double figures late into second yet stayed competitive, pulling to within five with 3:10 remaining. At this juncture of the game Sea Lions were forced to foul in an effort to get the ball back with as much time left as possible. FPU came through at the line, however, scoring its last nine points there.

Turnovers haunted PLNU for much of the second half, giving the ball away nine times since the last tie at the 17 minute mark. Fresno ended up scoring 21 points on the 19 Sea Lion turnovers for the game.

The Sunbirds (12-5, 5-3 GSAC) had a slight advantage in team shooting (47.7 percent to 45.8 percent) but pulled in seven more rebounds than did PLNU.

Hancock led all scorers with 20 points, Murray added 16 points and seven rebounds, Rhett Beal added 15 points, and Marek Klassen had 11 points.

Five Sunbirds scored in double-figures led by 17 points from both Deshaun Legree and Jerante Morgan.  Wild finished with 13 points and 13 rebounds.

The last time that PLNU won in Fresno was in January of 2004.

Point Loma takes a few days off before host Biola on Thursday. Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 pm.