Cougars Make Stars Fall

TULSA, OKLA. – Just hours after top seed Transylvania (Ky.) fell to GSAC member Christian Heritage, No. 2-seeded Azusa Pacific showed that it is very much alive in the NAIA Division I Men's Championship Tournament, dominating local favorite and 4-time national champ Oklahoma City in a 94-54 victory Friday night. The Cougars advance to tomorrow night's 6 p.m. (CST) quarterfinal against Faulkner (Ala.), which ended Azusa Pacific's season last year at the NAIA Tourney with a 97-73 first-round victory.

Tonight's victory extended the school-record win streak and also broke the record for most wins in program history with 35. The Cougars committed a season-low 11 fouls in the game and shot 54 percent (35-for-65) from the field.

"I knew we had to play as a team and I thought this was our best team effort where we hit open people," said Cougar head coach Bill Odell. "We didn't do anything spectacular, we just broke their trap, hit open people and made the shots."

Caleb Gervin led the way for the Cougars, who improve to 35-2 and now have the longest active winning streak in the NAIA at 21 in a row. Gervin scored 23 points, and Steve McIlwain hit 4-of-5 3-point attempts in a 17-point, 5-assist performance. Seven different Cougars hit 3-pointers, including Justin Leslie, who finished with 14 points and 7 rebounds. Gary Dredge added 12 points and 7 boards off the bench.

"I felt confident coming into the game," said Gervin. "We didn't shoot well last night, and I knew we were better shooters than we showed. So tonight, I did less thinking and just shot the ball."

The Cougars roared to a commanding 52-27 lead at halftime after shooting a sizzling 63% (19-for-30) clip from the floor. Azusa Pacific trailed 7-4 early, rallied to tie the game at 9-9 and then took control with a 9-1 run in which Anthony Haggins banged home 7 of his 9 first-half points.

"I just try to provide a spark and make something happen," said Haggins, who converted all 4 shots he attempted, all in the first half. "I didn't expect us to have a 40-point victory, but I did expect us to come out and play hard and play together. I guess that just brought us a 40-point victory."

The second half was not much different as the Cougars maintained at least a 25-point lead after halftime. Oklahoma City's Alex Spaulding sank a single free throw with 15:53 remaining to cut the Cougar lead to 55-30, but a Brett Michel 3-pointer set off a 30-13 run that left only the final score to be determined. In the run, the Cougars drained 7 treys from 5 different players.

After the first round of the tournament, crowds buzzed about the 4 victorious schools of the Sooner Athletic Conference, while the 3 GSAC schools quietly disposed of their first-round foes. The Stars' loss was the first by a SAC school in the tournament and was just 2 points shy of the worst loss suffered by the Stars to an NAIA opponent. The Stars finish the season 19-7.

Only 5 Oklahoma City players scored, led by Tate Decker with 15 and Aaron Eneas with 14. Alex Spaulding, who entered the game averaging 10 points a game, scored 9 points despite being saddled by 4 fouls in the first half alone. In fact, after Spaulding fouled out with 3:35 to play in the game, he picked up a technical foul, resulting in a pair of free throws by Michel that gave the Cougars their largest lead of the game at 90-48.

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