NAIA Tournament
First Round

JACKSON, Tenn.-- The last time Azusa Pacific won a game at the NAIA Tournament, head coach Danelle Liles was just 4 years old, none of her current players were born yet, and Ronald Reagan was president.

Yes, the Cougars were at the NAIA’s first-ever basketball championship tournament in 1980, advancing to the semifinals. But 24 years and 5 trips have passed since with each of them coming up empty for the Cougars.

This, however, is a new year, and Azusa Pacific has re-written its history.

In their second consecutive trip in Liles’ 2 years at the helm, the fifth-seed Cougars have finally lifted the monkey off their back with a 93-74 win over fourth-seed Brewton-Parker (Ga.) in the opening round of the 2005 NAIA Division I Women’s Basketball Tournament Thursday at Oman Arena in Jackson, Tenn.

“This is a great feeling to finally win here,” said Liles. “I am happy for the girls and am proud of them. We’re going to enjoy this one, but only for a minute, because we have to get right back to it tomorrow.”

With the win, Azusa Pacific improves to 24-10 and advances to the second round where the Cougars get a date with top-seed Oklahoma City in a re-match of a December game which the Cougars won in Azusa. That game will tipoff at 12:30 p.m. (CST).

Brewton-Parker suffers its first loss of the season to a team other than North Georgia and ends its season at 32-4.

Senior Kelsey Hudson, who is playing in her third NAIA Tournament, led all players with a tournament-high 30 points. She had 20 in the first half, including 10 in a game-turning 16-0 first half Cougar run.

“I can’t tell you how excited I am right now. This is a big deal for me,” said Hudson. “We want to show how tough our conference is, and how it prepares us for this. We know we can play with anyone.”

The pace was frenetic from the tip-off as Ashley Little gave the Lady Barons a quick 9-4 lead with a trey just 2:23 into the game. Alyssa Ferdaszewski converted a put-back on the Cougars’ next possession, and they were off and running, scoring 16 straight points. Hudson scored 10 in the run as the Cougars turned the 5-point deficit into a 20-9 lead with 12:34 to play. The Cougars never trailed again.

Lindsay Rice finished with 10 points and 7 rebounds, and her lay-up capped the run. Brewton-Parker scored 7 straight points to get within 4 (29-25) with 8:24 remaining. However, the Cougars closed the half with a 17-9 run to carry a 48-34 lead into the locker-room.

The Cougars maintained a double-digit lead for most of the second half until the Lady Barons erased a 13-point (67-54) deficit with a 10-3 spurt to get within 6 (70-64) with 7:46 remaining. Azusa Pacific closed the game, though, with a 23-10 blitz to put the game away, getting its largest lead of the game at the final buzzer.

“This team is composed and we know how to win games,” said Hudson. “We stick together. When they got close in the second half, we knew we had to step up and play to win instead of play to lose.”

Four Cougars reached double-figures. Hudson was 9-of-16 from the floor and 12-of-15 from the free throw line. She also grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds as the Cougars out-rebounded the Lady Barons, 53-28.

Lindsey West finished with 17 points (7-of-9 from the floor) and 8 rebounds. Ferdaszewski added 14 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals.

The teams combined for 58 turnovers, including 31 by the Cougars. However, the Cougars limited the Lady Barons to just 41% (28-for-69) from the floor and 22% (6-for-27) from beyond the arc.

Little led Brewton-Parker with 18 points, but shot just 5-of-17 from the floor before fouling out.

The 93 points scored is the second-highest total thus far in the tournament. Ironically, only Oklahoma City scored more in its 97-80 win over Lewis-Clark St. (Idaho).

“I wasn’t surprised that we were able to score as much as we did,” said Liles. “I was surprised that we were able to score that many points with as many turnovers as we had. We talked about drawing contact and getting to the free throw line. We knew they were aggressive, and we wanted to take advantage of that by getting to the line.”

The Cougars shot 37 free throws, hitting 27, including 15 in the first half.