HONOLULU, Hawaii. -- Azusa Pacific coach
Bill Odell took a business trip to Hawaii hoping to mix in a little pleasure. What he got instead was a vacation after his Cougars took care of all the business, beating Whitman College, 96-79, in the final game of the Whitworth Hawaiian Classic.
Combined with Saturday’s blowout of Menlo, the Cougars sweep their 2-game trip to Hawaii and run their modest winning streak to 7 straight.
A battered and bruised Danny Rosales led the way for Azusa Pacific today, putting together his best game ever as Cougar. Playing against the 6-foot-10 Kyle Dalvit, the 6-foot-6 Rosales took an elbow to the face early in the game that required stitches to close. Nonetheless he came back to drop in a career-high 19 points on 9-for-15 shooting and grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds to record his second straight double-double.
Senior forward Brett Michel added a game-high 20 points, including 16 in the first half. With the Cougars trailing 62-60 six minutes into the second half, Michel sparked an impressive 21-2 Azusa Pacific run over a 6-minute span that gave the Cougars control of the game. Michel scored 6 points during an 11-0 burst.
Azusa Pacific is making a habit of carving massive offensive outbursts. In the past 5 games, the Cougars have fashioned runs of 24-2 (vs. Hope International), 19-0 (vs. Spring Arbor), 23-5 (vs. Southwestern Assemblies of God), 27-2 (vs. Menlo) and now a 21-2 sprint vs. Whitman.
As has been the case each time, the Cougars’ 3-point shooting was a key factor. Though Azusa Pacific made just 11 treys, 6 less than the school-record 17 it banged home against Menlo 2 days ago, 4 of them came in succession at the end of the run with Spencer Foster, Larry English, and Nate Pratt all connecting on the long ball. In fact, after Pratt buried back-to-back treys to account for all 6 of his points in the game, Azusa Pacific found itself up 81-63 with 7:25 left to play.
Sophomore forward Lance Soderberg put together another strong effort, finishing with 16 points in just 17 minutes. Foster added 10 points and 6 rebounds. The freshman from Glendora finished with 17 points and 15 rebounds in the 2 games in Hawaii. Meanwhile, English chipped in with 10 points and a game-high 7 assists with no turnovers in 27 minutes of play.
Whitman was paced by Greag Ricker’s 15 points while Dalvit added 14 points and 11 rebounds.
Azusa Pacific trailed by as much as 8 on a couple of occasions in the first half but rallied to behind Michel’s hot hand to assume a 49-47 lead at halftime.
Michel and Rosales were each named to the all-tournament teams, their first-ever individual honors as Cougars. Michel had 36 points in the 2 games in Hawaii while Rosales added 29 points and 20 rebounds to go along with 3 blocked shots.
Azusa Pacific has now won 34 straight over NCAA Division III teams and has not lost to a DIII team since 1991.
With the victory, Azusa Pacific returns to the mainland with a 9-3 record which it will take into Saturday’s game at home vs. Midland Lutheran College of Fremont, Neb. Whitman falls to 3-5.
