SAN DIEGO - The Sea Lions put together a key 10-1 run right before the half to take the lead from Fresno Pacific, and the Point Loma men's basketball team would never relinquish that advantage on its way to a 79-75 victory over the Sunbirds on Monday, Jan. 9.
 
PLNU has now won all four of its games since returning from Christmas break to improve to 9-6 on the season and to 5-3 in the PacWest (t-fifth). The loss drops Fresno Pacific to 2-12 (2-5 PacWest).
 
Josh Rodriguez led all scorers with 18 points. He also grabbed six rebounds and handed out five assists. Vince Boumann dominated the smaller Sunbirds in the post, going 6-of-10 from the field en route to posting his fifth double-double of the season with 17 points and 13 rebounds. He also had two steals to match Rodriguez for the team-lead. Mike Planeta matched his season-high with four 3-pointers to post 14 points, and reigning PacWest Freshman of the Week Sterling Somers registered his sixth straight game in double-figures with 10 points.
 
The Sea Lions got to the line 35 times in the contest (17 makes), compared to just nine times for the Sunbirds. This led to a number of FPU student-athletes getting in foul trouble and PLNU winning the battle for second chance points 25-12.
 
"I am proud of how aggressive our guys played on the offensive end of the floor," said PLNU head coach Ryan Looney. "You can't get to the line that many times without having a sense of urgency in that area. We just need to do a better job knocking them down."
 
PLNU also locked down the reigning PacWest Player of the Week, Mike Crawley, defensively. Crawley came into the game averaging 20.3 points per game over his last five, which included a 35-point performance at Holy Names, but the Sea Lions limited him to just eight points on 4-of-6 shooting.
 
"We guarded him with a number of different people because they play him at a number of different positions," said Looney. "All of our guys did a good job following our game plan. He a fantastic athlete and has done a great job especially driving baseline. Collectively, Sterling Somers, Mike Planeta, Trevor Peterson and Zach Burnham all did a very nice job defensively."
 
After Point Loma went on its 10-1 run, aided by a pair of Planeta 3-pointers, to close the half with a 42-34 lead, it maintained that advantage throughout much of the second half, going up by as many as 18. But with just over a minute left, FPU made a run of its own to cut the lead down to six. However, the Sea Lions were able to hang on for the win by taking care of the ball and knocking down just enough free throws.
 
"(The lack of turnovers) are something we have made a very important part of what we do," Looney explained. "We want to win the possession battle each time we play and part of the reason we have been doing better recently is the players are just now starting to get more comfortable with our system on offense."
 
Point Loma had just 11 turnovers in the games and outscored FPU 21-4 in points off turnovers.
 
This was the first of eight home games in their next nine contests for Point Loma. It will host Dixie State in its next game on Saturday, Jan. 14 at 4 p.m.
 
"It is fun for an athlete to play home games in front of their peers, and we have not had the opportunity to do that much this season," Looney noted. "So I challenged our guys that this was the first time all season that we could propel ourselves to somewhere, so I think we are going to collectively become more committed in every area, and hopefully that will help make us a better team on the floor."