AZUSA, CALIF. – After 7 scoreless minutes to start the game, the NAIA's No. 8-ranked Azusa Pacific finally got warm enough to post a 79-73 victory over Cal Baptist Tuesday night.
 
The Cougars scored 8 of the game's final 11 points, but it was an 8-2 run that gave Azusa Pacific its largest lead of the game at 67-61 with 4:50 left in the game that iced the victory. Cal Baptist point guard Isamu Nichols, a senior transfer from Azusa Pacific, missed 2 medium-range jumpers in the final minute and finished with 7 points on 3-of-8 shooting from the field against his former mates. Nichols pickedup his fourth foul of the game just 2 minutes and 22 seconds into the second half and was one of 4 Cal Baptist players hit with at least 4 fouls, although Alan Brown was the only Lancer to foul out.
 
For nearly 7 minutes, the top 2 offenses in the GSAC could not get into much of a groove, and after Cal Baptist took an 8-0 lead, neither team scored in a 3 1/2-minute stretch until junior forward Anthony Haggins finally canned a 3-pointer from the corner with 13:03 remaining in the first half. Haggins proceeded to score the next 4 points to bring the Cougars to within 8-7 with 11:58 to play.
 
When Alan Brown's layup gave the Lancers a 26-20 lead with 4:37 to play in the half, senior center Justin Leslie hit a 3-pointer to start a 12-0 Cougar run capped by a Caleb Gervin breakaway dunk that gave the Cougars a 32-26 lead with 2:09 left in the half. However, Brown sank a trey and a pair of free throws in the final 2 minutes to bring Cal Baptist to within 34-33 at halftime.
 
Haggins scored a team-high 18 points in less than 20 minutes of work off the bench, while 4 other Cougars scored in double figures to round out a balanced attack. Cal Baptist out-rebounded Azusa Pacific 45-28, including 19 on the offensive glass. Omar Lopez led the way with 24 points and 12 rebounds, and Gary Gillman grabbed 11 rebounds to go with 12 points, although Gillman shot just 5-for-15 from the field. Before fouling out, Brown scored 22 points and grabbed 7 rebounds. Brown (8-for-15) and Lopez (10-for-18) each shot over 50% from the field, but the rest of the team combined to shoot an icy 33% (11-for-33).
 
With the victory, Azusa Pacific improves to 7-1 in the GSAC and 20-2 overall, while Cal Baptist drops to 5-3 in GSAC, 17-5 overall. The Cougars have now won 13 straight over the Lancers and 24 of the past 26 meetings. For the first time since 1994 in the series history, the winning team scored fewer than 83 points.