Azusa Pacific, unranked for only the second time in 9 years and trying to find some sense of itself after suffering its worst Golden State Athletic Conference loss in 16 years just 48 hours ago, looked like the Cougars of yesteryear in its 97-66 GSAC dismantling of Hope International at the Darling Pavilion Thursday night.

The Cougars drained threes from all over the court, induced fouls and made subsequent free throws, and controlled the inside play with a dominant effort on the glass; all aspects of the game of basketball that have been absent from the Cougars' play all season. Granted, this is Hope International, a program that has lost a GSAC-record 61 straight conference games (it hasn't won a GSAC game since Dec. 4, 2001), but the Royals have looked better in their play this year, giving Hope real hope that the streak will end sometime this season. Just not tonight.

Freshman Mike Hornbuckle scored a career-high 21 points on a sizzling 8-for-10 shooting, which included a quartet of 3s, to lead Azusa Pacific to its 15th straight win over Hope International.

The Cougars opened the game on fire, canning 6 of their first 8 shots at the arc, led by Hornbuckle's perfect 3-for-3 effort that jettisoned the Cougars to a 24-12 lead 9 minutes into the game. Sophomore Jeff Bates, who missed Tuesday's game with The Master's because of a dislocated shoulder and was on a "as needed" basis for the Hope game, nonetheless made his way onto the floor in the early going and drained his first 2 treys to keep the Cougar arsenal varied and deadly.

"Mike was very active on offense tonight," said Cougar coach Bill Odell, "but as a team we did a great job of getting the ball to open people tonight. In terms of a team concept and playing hard, this was the best we've played this season."

Azusa Pacific finished the half by missing 4 of its last 5 shots from 3-point territory, but that really didn't matter since Brice Prather, who missed the past 2 games with a knee injury, had assumed control of play under the basket where he made 3-of-5 shots, made 3 trips to the charity stripe (4-for-5) and grabbed 3 rebounds. By the time halftime rolled around, the Cougars had a familiar looking 19-point (53-34) cushion over Hope International. Seemingly just like old times.

The steamrolling continued throughout the second-half with Azusa Pacific pushing its lead to as much as 35 (81-46) following a Lance Soderberg jumper with 9 minutes left in the game. Soderberg finished with 14 points and a game-high 9 rebounds. Prather matched his career-high with 16 points (he also had 16 vs. Hope International last year) and was 6-for-8 at the line after entering the game as a 44% free throw shooter.

"The rest really helped Brice," said Odell. "The pain in his knee is gone. He didn't do anything flashy tonight but was very solid, and the team did a good job of getting him the ball."

Junior guard Kasey Myers came off the bench to score a career-high 12 points. Hornbuckle also had a career-high 8 rebounds as Azusa Pacific beat Hope International, 48-22, on the glass.

The Cougars, who came into the game shooting just 68% from the line, made a season-high 28-of-31 (.903) at the line.

Azusa Pacific is now 8-0 all-time in the Darling Pavilion and runs its season record to 10-5 overall, 2-2 in the GSAC. Hope International, which was paced by Jared Lloyd's 20 points, falls to 3-7 overall, 0-3 in the GSAC.