The win is Azusa Pacific's first in 4 tries at home over perennial NAIA power Mountain State, which was making its fourth straight annual trip to the Canyon City and had never lost in 6 previous contests in the Felix Event Center.

Behind the inside physical play of Prather, who scored a career-high 21 points, the intermediate-range jumpers of Butler, who tallied a season-high 20 points, and the perimeter shooting of Zea, who drained a trio of treys on his way to an 18-point night, Azusa Pacific prevailed in rather surprising fashion, leading wire-to-wire and in the end justifying its claim as one of the NAIA's premier teams this season.

"This is a confidence booster," said Zea, who also registered 6 rebounds and 3 blocked shots in his 29 minutes of work tonight. "We've had certain points in certain games this season where we played together in spurts, but tonight we were more consistent."

Indeed, the west coast Cougars were impressive with their finest showing to date in what has otherwise been a sporadic display of talent this season. Azusa Pacific defended well enough at one end of the court to hold Mountain State to just 38-percent (32-for-84) shooting which included a 7-for-26 clip at the arc, while at the end working its offensive system to near perfection, producing 19 assists on 30 buckets scored and inducing a Cougar trademark 38 free throw attempts.

"This is a great win for us," said Azusa Pacific coach Bill Odell. "I felt like we competed. We played well, but we didn't' play great. There are still a lot of areas we can improve."

Prather, who came into the game with just 23 points in the 3 previous games combined, went to work early and often on the blocks, tallying 15 first-half points and eventually collecting 11 of his 21 points by making every one of his free throw attempts.

"I've never gone 11-for-11 at the line anytime in my life," said Prather, a career 54-percent free throw shooter. "It's been a mental battle that I think I have finally overcome."

From the outset of the game, it was clear that Azusa Pacific was going to frequently use Prather to attack the rim, relaying on the perimeter game only when necessary, and in those occasions Butler, Zea and the rest of their mates were up to the task.

Just the night before all 3 players were benched for a poor work rate just 4 minutes into what would eventually be a reserve-led 59-point Cougar victory over Life Pacific. There would be no punitive benching, however, this night.

"I was really focused since I walked into the gym tonight," said Butler. "I didn't talk to anybody. I was only thinking about what we had to do tonight. We had to get this win to let everyone know that we really are the No. 3 team in the nation."

Mountain State opened the game with a bad case of the jitters, missing 6 of its first 7 shots and committing 5 turnovers in less than 5 minutes of play. Therefore, Azusa Pacific took advantage, jumping out to an 11-2 lead on the strength of Butler, who scored 7 points during the game-opening run which included a 3-point basket.

"This was a breakout game for me," said Butler, who also had 8 rebounds and 2 steals. "I haven't been playing to my potential and everyone's expectations, but when I scored the 2 easy-look baskets early and then knocked down that 3-ball, I felt like this was going to be my night."

Mountain State eventually settled, and on the strength of its jet-like quickness battled back into contention following a Yusuf Baker dunk that cut the Azusa Pacific advantage to just 28-27 with over 6 minutes left in the first half. However, on Azusa Pacific's ensuing possession, Baker was slapped with an indirect technical foul for grabbing the rim. Zea made both free throws that kick-started a 17-6 Azusa Pacific run to close the half and seemingly bury Mountain State under a 45-33 scoreboard disadvantage at halftime. Prather, Butler and Zea combined for 14 of the Cougars' 17 points to close the half.

The Cougars of West Virginia rallied back to within 6 points on a couple of occasions midway through the second half, but each time Azusa Pacific answered back, first with a Mike Danielian baseline lay-up and then with a Todd Martin corner 3-pointer off an inbound play that put Azusa Pacific up 66-57 with 10:23 left in the game.

Despite being the NAIA's winningest program over the past 4 seasons, Mountain State could not muster a final fight but rather folded down the stretch under Azusa Pacific's defensive pressure, missing 17 of 23 shots in the final 10 minutes to suffer its worst margin of defeat since another Golden State Athletic Conference school, Concordia, handed MSU a 21-point loss 2 years ago.

"After losing to Westmont and now beating Mountain State like we did tonight shows how tough our conference is," said Zea. "We knew going in that beating this team would help us a lot. We're confident now, but we just can't let it get to our heads."

"This is huge," said Prather, who also tallied a game-high 9 rebounds to go along with a pair of blocked shots. "For the past 3 years we've never beat Mountain State on this floor, and now to beat them handily means we really came together as a team tonight. It was a great, great team effort defensively, and it showed with their shooting."

Mountain State was paced by Baker's 16 points and 8 rebounds in 23 minutes of play before fouling out with 4:14 left in the game.

With the victory Azusa Pacific improves to 7-1. Mountain State falls to 8-3.