AZUSA, Calif. -- Opportunity was knocking, and Azusa Pacific answered the door.
The unranked Cougars ran their winning streak to 3 with an enormously important 83-73 win over the NAIA's No. 12-ranked The Master's Tuesday night in the Felix Event Center.
"This win is huge because aside from beating Westmont, we have yet to beat the nationally-ranked teams that are ahead of us in the standings," said Azusa Pacific rookie head coach Danelle Liles. "This win can definitely serve as a springboard for us. We're going up from here and taking it one game at a time."
The win moves the Cougars to 15-8 overall, 8-5 in the GSAC and could serve as a springboard into something even bigger during the final stretch.
Azusa Pacific's next 5 opponents are a combined 24-40 in GSAC play—a stretch only magnified by the fact that if the Cougars could've responded tonight, they could make a legitimate push at hosting a first round GSAC tourney game.
And respond is what they did.
The Master's, which drops to 17-8, 9-5 with its' second straight loss and third in the past 5 games, scored 7 straight points to take a 10-5 lead less than 3 minutes into the contest. The Cougars, however, responded with 3 of their 7 first half treys in a 15-4 spurt that turned a 5-point deficit into a 20-14 lead with 12:37 to play they would never relinquish.
Kelsey Hudson, who has averaged just 4 points over the past 5 games, exploded tonight for a team-high 21 points, including a pair of treys. She also grabbed 10 rebounds.
"Kelsey's the type of player that will burn teams if they forget about her," said Liles. "She was focused and ready to go, and this was an opportunity for her to get her confidence back. She did a great job on the boards, too, and that was just as impressive."
Equally as impressive was the job the Cougars did on the defensive end. Not only did they force the Mustangs into 25 turnovers, but they limited the GSAC's seventh-leading scorer Jessica Seyler, who hit 5 treys en route to 24 points in the last meeting, to just 10 points on 4-of-15 shooting.
"We made it a point to know where she is at all times," said Liles. "We gave up a couple of open looks, but for the most part we did a good job on her. I think we took her out of her game a little, because we always had someone in her face whenever she touched the ball."
Azusa Pacific led 46-40 just 59 seconds into the second half when Marie Dyk capped a mild 7-2 Cougar run with one her 4 treys that pushed the Cougar lead up to 53-42 with 15:26 to play. The Cougars opened up a 13-point lead on Hudson's second triple of the game with 7:27 to play and then clamped down on the defensive end and didn't allow the Mustangs to get any closer than 7 points the rest of the way.
Despite being held without a field goal in the final 4:29, the Cougars did hit 10-of-13 free throws, including 4 straight by Hudson, to keep the Mustangs at bay.
Lindsey West finished with 16 points and 8 rebounds. She scored 10 of her 16 in the second half. Dyk and Nicolette Dresback each added 13. As a team, the Cougars hit 11-of-27 (40.7%) 3-pointers—their sixth game this season with double-digit 3-pointers. Conversely, the Mustangs hit just 2-of-14 (14.3%) from beyond the arc.
