BAKERSFIELD, CALIF. -- Senior All-American point guard T.J. Walker's layup with 17 seconds left and 1 second on the shot clock, gave Azusa Pacific an 80-77 lead and the Cougars were able to dodge a pair of North Dakota State 3-point attempts to hold on for the 3-point win in the first game of the CS Bakersfield State Farm Holiday Classic Tournament.
The victory is Azusa Pacific's sixth straight and puts the Cougars into the finals of the tournament against host CS Bakersfield.
"I thought we were rusty in the beginning, but T.J. and KD (Kevin Daley made some plays for us," said Cougar head coach Bill Odell.
Trailing 67-65 with 5:18 left in the game, Walker stole the ball from Bison guard Jason Retzlaff, took it down the court by himself, found an opening in the lane, and dunked the ball to know it at 67-67.
After NDSU tied it at 73-73, senior guard Jason Boswell, who had fouled Bison forward Danny English to enable the Bison to tie, made up for it by scoring on a layup to give the Cougars a 75-73 lead they would not relinquish.
Daley made a pair of free throws and Boswell made 1 of 2 to make it 78-75. After English nailed 2 free throws to make it 78-77, Daley turned it over, but the Bison gave it right back. That set up Walker's heroics. Walker milked the last 10 seconds of the clock and blew by Bison guard Leo Prescott, converting the layup.
"I knew as a senior I had to make the plays," said Walker. "Me and Boz talked about it on the way home for Christmas that as senior captains, we need to make plays."
The Bison attempted a 3-pointer, and Boswell rebounded, but as he was falling out of bounds, he threw the ball back to North Dakota State. However, Prescott's last second 3-pointer was long, and the Cougars held on.
"We didn't do some things early, and got into a hole, but I felt like we picked it up when we needed to and these guys are starting to gel together," said Odell, who is now 2 wins shy of 200 in his career.
Junior guard Jerome Joseph led the Cougars with 20 points, continuing his hot shooting. Joseph also pulled down 6 offensive rebounds (8 total for the game) including 3 key rebounds down the stretch.
"I may not be the biggest guy, but coach told me too just get better positioning," said Joseph. "I know that I am asked to score, so I am shooting."
The Cougars overcame an abysmal 37% shooting (30-for-80), mainly in part that they outrebounded a much bigger Bison team 46-37. Daley had a team season-high 12 rebounds, followed by 9 from Walker, 8 from Joseph and 5 each from Boswell and Justin Leslie. Walker finished with 19 points, Daley had 18 and Boswell had 11. The Cougars, struggling from the free throw line for most of the year, were 85% (17-for-20) tonight.
With the win the Cougars improve to 10-2 on the season while North Dakota State falls to 7-3.
The Cougars will play tourney host CS Bakersfield in the finals of the State Farm Holiday Classic tomorrow night at 8 p.m. in Centennial Garden.
