AZUSA, Calif. -- The NAIA’s No. 5-ranked Azusa Pacific used a 17-2 run midway through the second half to break open a tight game and beat The Master’s College, 96-79, in a Golden State Athletic Conference game Tuesday night in the Felix Event Center.
With Azusa Pacific down 61-58 less than 6 minutes into the second half, senior forward Brett Michel ignited the Cougar run by scoring 9 of his game-high 24 points, using a variety of moves on the post to drop in 3 buckets that he surrounded with a pull-up 3-pointer up on a break that gave the Cougars a 70-63 lead. Freshman guard Jeff Bates buried his only shot of the night, a right wing trey, and senior center Danny Rosales capped the run with emphatic dunk that gave Azusa Pacific an insurmountable 77-63 lead with 8:49 left in the game.
Yet there would have been no run had it not been for Azusa Pacific’s physical inside play in the second half. After getting manhandled in the first half by Mustang big-men Caleb Adcock, Lavar Simmons and Chris Sanders, the Cougar front of Rosales, Lance Soderberg and Brice Prather flexed their own muscle to begin a defensive stand that allowed Azusa Pacific to take control of the game.
Soderberg opened the second half by blocking an Adcock lay-up, the first of 4 Cougar blocks in the second frame. Less than 2 minutes later, Soderberg came right back with another block of an Adcock shot, signaling the second half was going to be much more difficult for the Mustang post men. Prather swatted 2 more shots later in the half.
“We picked up the intensity in the second half, and mainly on the defensive end,” said Azusa Pacific head coach Bill Odell. “Every night we need to get something out of Danny, Brice or Erik (Soderberg), and we roll the dice to see what we get out of the 3 of them.”
Azusa Pacific trailed throughout most of the first half, finding itself down by as much as 8 (36-28) at one point. Only by virtue of a 10-2 run over the final 2:33 of the half, capped by a Michel trey with 1 second remaining, could Azusa Pacific claim a 49-48 lead heading into halftime.
“We absolutely had no intensity in the first half,” said Odell. “Danny didn’t play real well but he turned it around in the second half, and Brice did a total 180 from his last game and had some key plays for us.”
Prather, who registered just 13 points in his past 5 games, tallied 8 points, 3 rebounds and 3 blocked shots in 13 minutes against The Master’s tonight.
Senior Ryan Dillon played one of his most complete games as a Cougar. Along with his career-high 7 assists, including one that led to Rosales’ dunk, 5 rebounds and 2 steals, Dillon tied Michel for team-high scoring honors with a career-best 24. He poured in 5 3-point baskets, including a key one from the corner with 6:03 left in the game. The Master’s had just gone on a 6-0 run, thanks in part to a technical foul on Rosales after he fouled out of the game, to cut the Cougar lead to less than double-digits at 84-75. However, Dillon’s back-breaking bomb pushed the margin to even dozen, and the Mustangs were never able to get back into the game.
The Master’s shot a blistering 61% (20-for-33) in the first half, but was held to just a 37% (10-for-27) clip in the second half.”
“We turned it on defensively and it allowed us to go on that offensive splurge,” said Michel.
The Cougars answered the Mustangs’ first half hot hand by nailing 20 of their own 31 (65%) shots in the second half, including 5-of-8 from the 3-point arc. Freshman reserve Spencer Foster aided the Cougar cause with 13 points off the bench.
With the victory, which is Azusa Pacific’s fifth straight over The Master’s, the Cougars improve to 21-4 and have now won 19 of their past 20 games. They also up their GSAC mark to 12-1. The Master’s, which was paced by Adcock’s game-high 29 points, falls to 15-8 overall, 6-6 in the GSAC.
