HONOLULU — Hawai'i Pacific University made a valiant comeback attempt in the fourth quarter, but the Sharks dug too deep of a hole as Point Loma came away with a 68-58 PacWest Conference victory Thursday evening at the Moanalua High School Gym.
 
The Sharks (18-5, 15-3) slipped to third in the PacWest standings as HPU's five-game win streak was snapped. The Sea Lions (21-3, 15-2) moved past HPU into second in the PacWest standings with their seventh straight win.
 
 "We battled through some sickness and injury, but that's no excuse," said HPU head coach Reid Takatsuka. "We allowed too many significant runs to and had to play from behind. It's hard to beat a good team like that."
 
The Sharks were led by junior center Sarah Liva of Mililani, Hawai'i/Mililani who recorded her second double-double of the season with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Senior forward Cece Pearl of Peoria, Ariz./Peoria posted 11 points with two steals, while sophomore forward Gabriella Fotu of Auckland, New Zealand/Ranitoto added 10 points sixth six rebounds and a blocked shot.
 
Point Loma was paced by Roya Rustamzada with 16 points and 12 rebounds to go with two blocks. Kassidy Gengenbacher posted 15 points with six boards, while Madison West chalked up 13 points and Sydney Tonack 10.
 
The Sharks shot just 31 percent from the field (23-of-74) and only 11 percent from the 3-point arc (3-of-28). HPU was 9-of-16 from the foul line (56 percent). Point Loma shot even worse from the floor, hitting 15-of-50 (30 percent), but made 5-of-14 (36 percent) from the arc. The Sea Lions hit a remarkable 33-of-42 (79 percent) from the charity stripe.
 
HPU outrebounded PLNU 56-36, but suffered 19 turnovers to the Sea Lions 17.
 
The teams played very close early with HPU holding the lead twice only to have the Sea Lions make comebacks. The Sharks tied PLNU at 7-all with 4:29 to play in the first quarter on a layup by Liva. That's when the first Sea Lion run occurred as PLNU went on an 11-4 run to close the quarter with an 18-11 lead.
 
The second opened with a 3-pointer from West to extend PLNU's run to 14-4, before HPU answered with its own 10-1 run over the next eight minutes. Liva capped the run with a layup with 1:49 to play before the half, pulling the Sharks within one at 22-21. But the Sea Lions countered with an 8-2 run off of two 3's and two free throws in the final 90 seconds. PLNU led 30-23 at the half.
 
Neither team scored in the first two-and-a half minutes of the third before Pearl's 3-ball pulled the Sharks within four at 30-26. The Sea Lions reversed the momentum quickly with Rustamzada's 3-pointer that started an 18-0 run to put Point Loma up by 22 at 48-26 at the 3:16 mark of the third. HPU trimmed it back to a 54-35 differential at the quarter break.
 
HPU opened the fourth quarter with an 11-2 run with senior guard Samantha Campos of Sacramento, Calif./Inderkum running out a fastbreak layup to put HPU cutting the lead in half to 56-46 with 6:16 to play.  However, the Sea Lions used the free throw line to build the lead back up to 15 points and the Sharks could only trim the lead back to 10 at game's end 68-58.
 
HPU has just two regular season games remaining, with the Sharks playing their last home game of the season on Monday evening at 4:30 against Dixie State at the Moanalua Gym. HPU closes the season a week from Saturday against cross-town rival Chaminade in McCabe Gym.