AZUSA, Calif.-- If there were any worries of an Azusa Pacific letdown after Tuesday’s stunning win at No. 1-ranked Vanguard, they were put to rest early.

Although this one was never in doubt as the NAIA’s No. 12 Cougars led wire-to-wire, they used a 16-7 run midway through the first half to assume control and cruise to a 73-45 GSAC win over Biola on a rare Friday night affair in front of 1,104 in Azusa.

The win is the Cougars’ fourth in a row and their 14th in the past 17 games. They improve to 17-5 overall, 8-2 GSAC. Biola, which has dropped 7 of its last 11, falls to 8-9, 3-8.

“The girls are seeing more and more what potential they have,” said Liles. “If we keep playing like this, then the sky is the limit.”

Kelsey Hudson led all players with 17 points.

Hudson and Monica Somers, who added 12 points off the bench, combined for 12 of the Cougars’ 16 points in their opening run that stretched over an 8:07 span. Somers started it with a jumper and went on to score 6 of her 8 first half points during the spurt. By the time the dust settled the Cougars turned a 7-6 lead into a 23-13 advantage with 6:32 remaining.

Azusa Pacific overcame a sluggish first half in which it committed 11 turnovers and scored just 28 points, but it still led 28-19 at the break. The Cougars turned it on, though, in the second half to put this away.

“I dind’t think it was a hangover from Tuesday night (against Vanguard),” said Azusa Pacific head coach Danelle Liles when referring to the Cougars’ first-ever win over a No. 1-ranked team. “We just have a hard time of getting started. We’re trying to find that line-up that comes out of the gate hard. I’m not sure what was going on, but we just couldn’t find a flow and chemistry in that first half.”

They led 37-28 with 15:36 remaining before scoring 10 straight keyed by a conventional 3-point play from Alyssa Ferdaszewski followed by Sarah Leathers’ second trey of the game to open a 47-28 lead with 12:52 to play.

The Cougars led 55-41 when Ashley Oakes hit a 3-pointer that started an 18-4 Cougar spurt over the final 6:48 of the game.

The Eagles, who have scored no more than 56 points in 9 straight games, continued their offensive struggles as they shot just 36% and committed 30 turnovers. They were playing without leading scorer Elizabeth Matthews, who has missed nearly 3 weeks with a knee injury, and it showed.

“We’ve been focusing on defense lately because we’re last in the conference in scoring defense,” said Liles. “So the last week that’s what we focused on. The girls did a good job of rotating tonight, took a few charges defense, and forced 5 shot clock violations.”

Kendall Ekema led the Eagles with 12 points in 17 minutes off the bench.

Two-time All-GSAC Lindsey West finished with 11 points, 5 assists and 4 rebounds. Ferdaszewski drained a pair of treys to key her way to 9 points. Oakes grabbed a game-high 8 rebounds to go along with 3 assists.