Playing in the semifinals of the NAIA Men's Basketball Championship Tournament for fourth time in the past 8 years, Azusa Pacific finally advanced to the national championship game for the first time in program history after knocking off Robert Morris College (Ill.), 96-88, in one of tonight's 2 semifinals played in Municipal Auditorium. The Cougars will meet John Brown University (Ark.) for the NAIA title, Tuesday (March 22) at 6:05 p.m. (PST). JBU downed Carroll College (Mont.), 73-60.

"This feels pretty good right now," said Cougar coach Bill Odell, who moved his coaching record at Azusa Pacific to 395-98 (.801). "I know how hard it is to get here."

Tonight's path to a first-ever title game appearance, however, was easier than expected. Taking advantage of Robert Morris' small frontline, the Cougars rolled out to a 20-5 lead in the first 6 minutes of the game. The Cougars made 8 of their first 11 shots, including 7 straight at one point to quickly take command of the game.

"We wanted to go inside at the start because we knew we had some mismatches down there," said Odell.

Six different Cougars scored in double figures led by big men Lance Soderberg and Brice Prather, who each tallied a team-high 17 points. In fact, the 6-foot-7 Prather scored 8 of Azusa Pacific's first 22 points, taking advantage of RMC's Keith Archie.

"We knew their big men weren't strong defenders and that we could take this team inside," said Prather, who also collected a game-high 12 rebounds to notch his fourth double-double of the season and his second of the NAIA Tournament. "The inside was open, so Lance and I went to work."

Meanwhile, the Cougar defense, which has been strong all year but in particular through the NAIA Tournament, put a lockdown on the tournament's hottest shooting team. Robert Morris came in converting 55% of its shots through the first 3 tournament games, including an impressive 47% from the arc. Yet, the Eagles missed 27 of their first 41 shots, including 11 of their first 13 from 3-point territory.

"They are amazingly quick," Odell added, "but we felt if we could keep them in front of us, help on defense, and put a hand in their face on the shots, then we could slow them down."

RMC's Derick Powe, who came into the game shooting a tournament-best 69% from the floor, led all players with 24 points, but he was 9-for-21 from the floor and missed 12 of his first 17 shots until making 4 straight in the final 2 minutes when Azusa Pacific had all but clinched the victory.

The Cougars took a 40-29 halftime lead and catapulted it into a 70-50 blowout with 10 minutes left to play. That's when the game got rather 'chippy' as the Eagles realized their championship dreams were slipping away. Powe and Martell Taylor were assessed technical fouls in the final 11 minutes and Cougar forward Spencer Foster took a hard RMC elbow to the mouth that opened a cut and put him out of commission for the rest of the game with just under 8 minutes to play. He is, however, expected to play in the championship game.

Five different Eagles fouled out of the game, including leading scorer Carlos Hurt, who frustrated by Azusa Pacific's relentless defense managed just 16 points on 19 shots.

"This is absolutely incredible," said Prather. "We had the intensity and poise throughout this tournament to get to the championship game. Coming off the loss in the conference tournament championship game, we regrouped and came together as a team."

Junior guard Kasey Myers took advantage of the Eagles' late-game aggressiveness and came off the bench to tally a career-high 16 points, 12 of which came at the charity stripe in the second half.

Foster and Josh Dillon each added 12 points while Larry English finished with 11.

"This is amazing," said Soderberg, who admits that as recently as 4 weeks ago he didn't think Azusa Pacific was national championship caliber. "There were times this year that people doubted us. Heck, I doubted us at one point. But this team is gelling big time right now."

Now 29-9 on the season, Azusa Pacific takes on John Brown (22-11) in both team's first-ever NAIA title game appearance. This will be the seventh meeting between the 2 NAIA powers. JBU has taken 5 of 6 previous meetings, including a 70-67 upset of then No. 7-seeded Azusa Pacific in the first round of the 2003 NAIA Championship Tournament, the only previous postseason meeting.

Considered to be the most difficult basketball tournament to win, the NAIA Championship Tournament requires the eventual national champion to win 5 games in 6 or 7 days.

"We had to beat some pretty good teams to get here," said Odell. "We had to beat the Red River champ Houston Baptist on Wednesday, the Sooner Athletic Conference champ Oklahoma Christian on Friday, the defending national champion and No. 1 seed Mountain State on Saturday, and now the tournament's No. 4 seed Robert Morris. And now we get a very good John Brown. They are well coached. It should be a great game."

Azusa Pacific has played in NAIA championship games/matches in football, women's soccer, softball and men's and women's tennis, but never before in men's basketball.

The national championship game will be televised live from Municipal Auditorium on CSTV (College Sports Television) which is available through Adelphia Cable and DirecTV, beginning at 6 p.m. (PST), Tuesday.