Fresno Pacific, which led throughout most of the game, took an 81-79 lead less than a minute into overtime on a Corey Duckworth trey before Foster, who was already in the midst of taking over the game, banged home back-to-back bombs to spark a 16-3 Cougar run that allowed Azusa Pacific to complete a comeback from 12 down.

"I'll take the win," said Cougar coach Bill Odell. "Our defense, which has carried so far in conference play, wasn't there tonight. But Fresno Pacific played a great game. They hit open shots, and we were very fortunate to play well in the right spots in the second half and get it done."

Foster's OT heroics could have been nil had he not come through in the clutch as well during regulation. The Cougars trailed 78-74 following Josh Urbiztondo's 3-ball from the right wing with 3 minutes to play. A Brice Prather free throw got the Cougars back to within 3 before Foster converted a conventional 3-point play at the 1:57 mark to tie the game at 78. The Cougars then had a chance to win but Larry English's driving lay-up was thwarted by FPU's interior defense.

"I wanted to get to the foul line on our last play," said Odell, "but Larry went too deep and couldn't make the angle pass."

Once in overtime, Foster's consecutive treys were the beginning of 4 straight 3-point possessions for the Cougars. English and Lance Soderberg followed with conventional 3-point plays, and when Soderberg's free throw fell through the basket, Azusa Pacific owned an insurmountable 91-84 lead with 1:43 remaining in the game.

Fresno Pacific's relentless 3-2 motion offense, which was quite similar to the one Azusa Pacific saw Tuesday night at Christian Heritage, this time gave the Cougars fits throughout the first half. The Sunbirds dropped in 18 points in the paint off lay-ups and put-backs. And when the Sunbirds weren't attacking the basket, they were draining the long ball, making a very efficient 4-of-5 attempts at the 3-point arc. As a result, Fresno Pacific led 40-31 at halftime. Urbiztondo (10 points) and Albert Jones combined for 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting in the first half.

"I challenged their manhood at halftime," is how Odell described his halftime talk. "I don't like to do that but we were too soft."

Defensively, Fresno Pacific was up to the task as well, out-playing perhaps the GSAC's hottest defense over the past 2 weeks. The Sunbirds held Azusa Pacific to just 1 basket over a 6-minute stretch that allowed them to move out to 28-20 lead following a Jones' lay-up with 6:33 left in the half.

Out of the break, Fresno Pacific pushed its lead to 12 at 52-40 following an Eric Norcross lay-up with 16 minutes left in regulation. Azusa Pacific began to chip away, cutting the Sunbird cushion to 3 on a trio of occasions. However, each time the Sunbirds responded and pushed its advantage out to 6, 7 or 8 points. The Cougars finally went on a 9-2 run that resulted in their first lead since the opening minutes of the game when Soderberg canned a trey from the top of the key to give Azusa Pacific a short-lived 70-69 lead. From there, the 2 teams traded the lead 5 times before Ubriztondo connected on his long ball that put the Sunbirds up at 78-74. They would not score again over the final 3:29 of regulation.

Foster finished with a career-high 25 points to go along with a game-high 10 rebounds. English added 21 points which included a perfect 9-for-9 effort at the line after halftime. Soderberg, who scored more points for Fresno Pacific than he did for Azusa Pacific in the first half (he accidentally tipped in a missed Sunbird free throw), rallied to tally 18 points after halftime to go along with 8 rebounds and 4 assists. Jeff Bates added 14 points, including 12 off of a quartet of 3-point buckets in the first half when he single-handedly kept Azusa Pacific from falling into oblivion.

Fresno Pacific, which shot a sizzling 54% (32-for-59) from the floor, was led by Urbiztondo's 23 points.

"He was tremendous tonight," said Odell of Urbiztondo's play. "He destroyed us. We just did a little better job of containing him the second half."

The game was Azusa Pacific's first overtime contest since 2002 when the Cougars downed NAIA power Faulkner, 86-81, in Azusa. The victory is Azusa Pacific 27th straight over Fresno Pacific and it was easily the Cougars' most difficult win over FPU since the current winning streak started in 1992. Azusa Pacific, which has now won a season-high 6 straight, improves to 15-5 overall, 7-2 in the GSAC, a half game behind front-runner Biola. Fresno Pacific, which had just defeated No. 19-ranked The Master's Tuesday night for its first conference victory, falls to 4-13 overall, 1-7 in the GSAC.