SAN DIEGO, Calif. -- The NAIA's No. 3-ranked Azusa Pacific didn't want any help, though Fresno Pacific was offering some assistance by giving Concordia all it could handle in Irvine. Instead Azusa Pacific opted to handle the situation by itself and in turn defeated Point Loma Nazarene, 79-74, to clinch outright its 11th Golden State Athletic Conference championship in the past 12 years.
With the victory, which is Azusa Pacific's 14th straight, the Cougars close out the regular season with a 28-4 overall record and more impressively a 19-1 GSAC record, the best conference mark ever in the GSAC's 18-year history. The defending NAIA champion Concordia, which rallied to beat Fresno Pacific in the final minute of play, 91-86, finished a game behind the Cougars, 18-2 in the GSAC.
The Cougars, who have already clinched an automatic berth into the NAIA Tournament (March 24-30 in Kansas City, Mo.) now head into the GSAC Postseason Tournament as the No. 1 seed and will host Vanguard in the opening round of the conference tournament on Thursday (March 11) at 7:30 p.m. in the Felix Event Center. The GSAC Tourney semis will be held on the campus of Hope International University in Fullerton, Calif., on Saturday (March 13) at 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. with the title game being played at Hope on Tuesday, March 16, at 7:30 p.m.
In the game tonight, junior All-GSAC guard Larry English poured in a career-high 22 points, including 12 in the second half, to lead the Cougars to their 11th straight win over Point Loma Nazarene. Yet the victory did not come without a struggle. The contest was tied 12 times. Azusa Pacific held just a 1-point lead at 58-57 with 9 minutes left in the game. However, English's fifth and final 3-point basket spurred a 14-5 run that finished with a pair of Ryan Dillon free throws and an insurmountable 72-62 lead with 3:52 left in the game.
"I told the guys at halftime that we have to get down and dirty," said Azusa Pacific coach Bill Odell, who has guided the Cougars to victory in 36 of their past 40 GSAC games and earlier tonight was named the GSAC Coach of the Year for the fifth time in his 13-year career. "We're not a pretty team. We have to work hard, and Ryan made a couple of hustle plays that turned the intensity around for us in the second half."
Azusa Pacific could not slow down Point Loma forward Tenton Berglund, who scored a game-high 28 points on some outstanding 13-for-16 shooting from the floor. His 17 first-half points allowed the Sea Lions to pull even with the Cougars at 38-38 by halftime. However, All-GSAC forward Andrew Lasker and guard Nick Nicholson, 2 of Point Loma's top 3 scorers in conference play, combined for 6-for-24 shooting and just 16 points.
"Brett Michel did another great defensive job on Lasker," said Odell, "and Ryan did a good job on Nicholson."
Sophomore Lance Soderberg chipped in with 18 points and heads into the GSAC tourney playing the best basketball of his career, averaging 16.2 points over the past 5 games. Dillon, who joins English and Michel on the All-GSAC team, finished with 12 points.
Since 1993, when the Cougars collected their first-ever GSAC championship with the conference's only perfect season, Azusa Pacific has gone 165-25 (.868) in conference play, winning GSAC titles in every year but 2002, and that team turned it on in the post season to win 6 straight games and advance to the NAIA Final Four.
