TULSA, OKLA. – Speed and deft shooting, seemingly longtime friends of Azusa Pacific basketball, turned on the Cougars in the opening round of the NAIA Men's Basketball Championship Tourney. As a result, a quicker, better shooting Faulkner University downed the sixth-seeded Cougars, 97-73, to end Azusa Pacific's season and dashing all dreams of the Cougars making a third straight appearance in the NAIA Final Four.
Led by five different players in double-digit scoring, Faulkner shot a torrid .581 (36-for-62) clip from the floor, the best by any Azusa Pacific opponent this season, and therefore cruised in for the widest margin of victory thus far in the first-round of the NAIA Tourney. When the Cougars tried to make a second-half run, Faulkner got better, making 20-of-33 shots (.606) over the final 20 minutes of the game.
Emerius Washington and Treives Henry each tallied team-high 18 points to lead Faulkner, with Washington getting 16 of his counters in the second half."They just shot the ball so well, and we couldn't defend anything on the inside," said Cougar head coach Bill Odell. "That just wasn't because of their quickness on the inside, their quickness was everywhere."
"We got dominated in every aspect of the game tonight – defense, rebounds, offense," said Azusa Pacific guard Jerome Joseph, who scored a game-high 28 points. "They got a lot of easy shots off their quickness and penetrating, and we weren't there to recover and rotate. We got over-matched and dominated."
The Cougars slipped into a hole from the outset, falling behind 12-2 less than 4 minutes into game. A trio of turnovers, 4 fouls and 0-for-6 shooting plagued the Cougars in the opening moments. A Kevin Daley trey followed by back-to-back Joseph three-pointers pulled Azusa Pacific to within 20-17 at the 12:13 mark of the first half. However, the Eagles responded with a 14-3 run to assume a comfortable 34-20 margin. From there, Faulkner maintained a lead anywhere from 10-14 points before settling on 48-37 halftime lead.
"They were quick in everything, including going to the rebounds," said Cougar forward Kevin Daley, who finished the game with 16 points and 7 rebounds. "They beat us in everything we tried to do. Their quickness was so much more than what we expected. They're up there with one of the quickest teams we played."
With the loss, Azusa Pacific finishes with a 27-6 record. Faulkner improves to 24-10 and will meet the winner of the Lindsey Wilson/Mobile in Thursday's round of "Sweet 16."
