LA MIRADA, CALIF. -- It was a game that will live in Azusa Pacific basketball lore for years to come.
Everything looked dim, down by 20 in the first half, on the road, and playing the final 16 minutes without All-American point guard T.J. Walker. But junior guard Jerome Joseph took over, living up to his "Big-Game" status, and led the No. 9-ranked Cougars to a 73-68 win over No. 10-ranked Biola, Tuesday night in La Mirada. It was the Cougars 12th win in the past 13 games against the Eagles.
"Jerome was outstanding in place of T.J.," said Cougar coach Bill Odell. "His points and rebounding helped build our confidence."
The Cougars led 9-8 less than 5 minutes into the game, but over the next 8:31, Biola went on a 23-2 run to take a commanding 31-11 lead with 8:30 left in the first half. It seemed that the game was over and Biola would run the table. Not so.
Azusa Pacific, led by Daley and Walker, went on a 25-10 run to close out the first half, and go into the locker room down 41-36.
Then the Cougars started the second half with a 6-0 run to take a 42-41 lead. Holding the 1-point lead, Walker went up for a rebound but on his way up was hit in the eye. The injury took him out of the game, though he would return for 30 seconds. But the injury was severe enough to give him muscle spasms around the eye, forcing him to sit out the remainder of the game.
"I didn't want to come out, but I couldn't see," said Walker, who scored 11 points in only 21 minutes. "I wanted to play, but for us to win, man, this is the best win I have ever felt."
In stepped Joseph, who normally plays shooting guard. Joseph scored 15 of his game-high 22 points in the second half and grabbed 7 rebounds.
"We knew we had to pull together, and coach told me just to do my job," said Joseph. "Coach called a couple isolations for me, and I was able to beat them. If they would have come to help, I would have dished off, but they never came to help."
Joseph hit a 3-pointer to give the Cougars a 60-56 lead, but the Eagles rallied to knot the score at 63 when Marcus White canned a trey with 3:31 left in the game. But Cougar sophomore guard Corey Smith hit a 3-pointer (his lone points of the night) out of a time-out to give the Cougars a 66-63 lead, one they would not relinquish. Biola All-American Jack Hartman, who was shut down in the second half, had a shot blocked by Daley, and Daley got the rebound, was fouled and converted the free throws for a 68-63 lead.
After a Eagle turnover, Jason Boswell, who converted free throws down the stretch twice last year against Biola, converted 2 this time around, for a 70-63 lead. White then made 3 free throws to cut it to 70-66. But Daley hit 3 more free throws and the Eagles scored at the buzzer to make it a 73-68 final.
"To win on the road is hard, but to win on the road at Biola is even harder," said Daley. "This will wake us up, but we can't do this every time, because sooner or later it will cost us. We got big contributions from our subs, and we couldn't have done it without them. We came out slow and were embarassed and I wouldn't have any of that."
The 20-point deficit overcome by the Cougars is the largest GSAC comeback by an Odell coached team.
"In the second half we picked up our defense and just had guys step up," said Odell. "Our subs played really hard and made things happen. I couldn't be more proud of these guys."
With the win, the Cougars improve to 17-3 and 4-1 in the GSAC, putting them in a 4-way tie for first place with Westmont, Biola, and Fresno Pacific. More importantly, the Cougars got their 2 road games out of the way against Biola and Westmont. They return to action on Friday when they host Concordia at 7:30 p.m.
