AZUSA, CALIF. -- The NAIA's No. 9-ranked Azusa Pacific overcame a sluggish start to post an 80-53 Golden State Athletic Conference victory over Fresno Pacific in Azusa, Tuesday night.
"We weren't mentally ready to play them," said Azusa Pacific coach Bill Odell. "When we started to play together and looked for the extra pass, we started to play a lot better."
The Cougars spotted Fresno Pacific a 10-0 lead in the first 3 minutes of the game, missing their first 3 shots while committing a pair of turnovers. Meanwhile, FPU canned 5 of its first 6 shots.
Senior All-American T.J. Walker made a 10-foot turnaround jumper to get the Cougars on the board at 16:41. Spurred by Walker's jumper, Azusa Pacific went on a 14-2 run to take a 14-12 lead with 12:30 left in the half. The Cougars never relinquished their advantage.
The Cougars started the second half on a 32-8 run, to extend their lead to 66-35, the biggest cushion of the night. They also forced the Sunbirds into a 22% (7-for-32) shooting clip. For the game, Fresno Pacific shot 19-of-63 (30.2%).
Kevin Daley, who was ejected 4 minutes into the Concordia game last Friday night, bounced back with his third double-double of the season, scoring 16 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.
"I didn't even know if I was going to play until last night," said Daley.
Daley added 4 spectacular dunks to his season-long highlight reel.
"Before the game, people are always telling me to dunk," joked Daley. "They're spoiled because they want me to dunk everything."
Sophomore shooting guard Corey Smith hit 4 3-pointers for 14 points, while his younger brother Ryan Smith hit a trio of treys for 9 points.
Walker, still wearing protective goggles for the tissue damage in his left eye, cooled off a bit from his 38 point ouburst against Concordia, scoring 10 points, but dished out 8 assists and had 5 steals.
"We knew we started poorly, and we had to start with a defensive push in the second half," said Walker. "From then on, we just pulled away."
The win is Azusa Pacific's fifth straight and the Cougars' 15th in their past 16 games. Additionally, they have now won 14 straight over the Sunbirds, who haven't beaten Azusa Pacific since 1992.
The Cougars are 19-3 overall and remained tied with Biola atop the GSAC with 6-1 conference marks. Fresno Pacific, which falls to 13-11 overall, 4-3 in the GSAC, now trails the GSAC's front-running duo by a pair of games.
