SAN DIEGO - Fresno Pacific was on fire from deep, as the Sunbirds hit 12-of-24 shots from behind the arc, to shock the No. 17 Point Loma men's basketball team with an 88-72 win in Golden Gym on Saturday, Feb. 15.
 
Sean Nealon-Lino led the way by hitting 7-of-10 shots from deep to record 23 points while also pulling down a team-leading rebounds. Adrian Antunez led all scorers with 28 points as he went 9-of-15 from the field and 9-of-11 from the free throw line.
 
Kaden Anderson paced PLNU with 26 points, for his third straight game with 20 or more points. He added seven rebounds, two blocks and a steal. Jordan May chipped in with 14 points and Ben Okhotin came off the bench to score 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting.
 
After giving up the first two baskets of the game to the Sunbirds, the Sea Lions went on a 12-0 run to take over the lead. However, that would be their largest lead of the contest as FPU quickly battled back with a 16-5 run to go up 32-27, and hold a 39-33 lead at halftime.
 
Fresno Pacific would extend its advantage to 15 points (56-41) early in the second half, but PLNU kept chipping away at the lead and cut it to four points (62-58) with 9:46 remaining. Unfortunately for the Sea Lions, the Sunbirds had another run in them. They scored 11 straight points to push their lead back to double-figures (73-58), and PLNU would never get the deficit below 13 points the rest of the way.
 
Team Records
Point Loma (17-6, 13-4 PacWest), Fresno Pacific (9-16, 7-12 PacWest)
 
PacWest Implications
With the loss, PLNU is now just a half-game up on Concordia and Chaminade in the PacWest standings. Those two teams will play tonight in Irvine, and the winner will then be tied with PLNU for second place in the standings. The win moves FPU to ninth in the conference.  
 
Turning Point
Fresno Pacific outscored PLNU 28-9 down the stretch after the Sea Lions had cut it to four points with just under 10 minutes left. Earlier this year at Fresno, Point Loma was down five with 10 minutes to go and managed to win the game 70-61, but this time it was the Sunbirds that closed out the game with a big run.
 
News and Notes
> This breaks a 10-game winning streak for PLNU against Fresno Pacific
> The Sunbirds had not won in Golden Gym since Feb. 23, 2013
> Point Loma had not lost three straight regular season games since the 2016-17 season

Up Next
Point Loma will play its final three home games of the season next week. They will host Hawaii Pacific on Monday (Feb. 17), Holy Names on Thursday (Feb. 20) and close out their home schedule against Notre Dame de Namur on Saturday (Feb. 22). All three games will tip-off at 7:30 p.m.