"We picked it up in the second half and played solid defense," said Cougar coach Bill Odell. "We talked about improving in certain areas and using this game to do that. We didn't do that in the first half, but we played better in the second half."

Joseph scored 18 of his 23 points in the first half, while Daley scored 19 of his career and game-high 33 points in the second half to turn a close game into a rout.

Trailing 21-16, the Cougars turned to Daley, who scored 8 points in a 15-6 run. Meanwhile, Joseph quietly led the Cougars in the first half, missing only 1 shot (6-of-7 from the field).

The Cougars took a 42-35 lead into the locker room. But in the second half, they came out firing, making their first 9 shots, including 4 3-pointers. The Cougars missed their first shot of the second half at the 10:37 mark. Though they did cool off, the Cougars still shot 61% (16-for-26) in the second half.

Once again though, the night belonged to Daley. The junior forward missed only 1 shot in the second half and put the exclamation point on his night with a baseline reverse dunk over 2 Crusaders.

Senior All-American guard T.J. Walker was nursing a groin injury and was held to a career-low 5 points. Still, Walker had a team-high 6 rebounds and 5 assists. Junior center Justin Leslie snapped out of a recent slump to score 18 points (7-of-9 shooting).

"For once I was focused before the game," said Leslie. "I was ready to play and my teammates had confidence in getting me the ball."

The Cougars finished the night shooting 56% (31-for-55) and nailed 9 3-pointers. They also shot 30-of-38 from the free throw line, led by Daley's 14-of-18 performance.

Senior guard Jason Boswell, who was held to only 4 points, joined the Cougars 1,000 point club with a lay-up in the final seconds of the first half.

With the win, the Cougars improve to 21-4, 8-2 in the GSAC and remain a game behind front-runner Biola. The Cougars are back in action on Tuesday, Feb. 16 when they travel to Riverside to take on Cal Baptist.