AZUSA, Calif. -- It wasn’t much for the highlight tape, but Azusa Pacific emerged victorious in a nonconference battle that featured 53 fouls, 71 free throw attempts and 52 turnovers, scoring an 81-69 win over visiting Cal Poly Pomona Saturday night at the Felix Event Center.
“I think anytime you have a game like that, both teams have to adjust a lot,” said Cougar head coach Danelle Bishop. “We had 3 or 4 starters in foul trouble, and it’s hard to adjust like that when you don’t have much room to play. I thought we had a lot of people come off the bench and really step up tonight, and I thought that was big.”
Senior guard Monica Somers scored 15 of her game-high 22 points in the second half, and freshman center Kristel Eddington posted her first career double-double with a 13-point, 12-rebound performance to lead the Cougars to their third straight win. The win was just the second ever for Azusa Pacific over the Broncos, and it snapped the Cougars’ 7-game series losing streak in the series.
“At the beginning of the season, I wasn’t even expecting to play that much,” said Eddington, who has started in each of the past 5 games to help the Cougars rebound from a 1-2 start. “I guess it just comes from hard work. I have been trying to focus on staying big in the post, and it has helped me come out strong and I have a little more confidence.”
Cal Poly Pomona forward Porsche Kirksey scored the first basket of the second half to pull the Broncos to within 38-33. Somers answered with a pair of free throws, senior Alyssa Ferdaszewski came up with a steal and back-to-back layups, and Somers came up with another steal and finished the 8-0 run with another layup to give the Cougars a 46-33 lead 2 minutes into the second half.
After Kirksey brought the Broncos to within 9 points at 56-47 with 13:10 remaining in the game, 6 different Cougars contributed to a 14-4 run over the next 6 minutes to give Azusa Pacific its largest lead of the game at 70-51 with 7:14 to play. The Broncos answered with a 13-2 run to pull within 8 points at 72-64 with 3:35 left after Lauren Kitaguchi successfully drew junior guard Sarah Leathers’ fifth foul on a 3-point attempt and sank all 3 free throws to cap the run.
“At the end of the game, even though we looked a little timid with 3 or 4 minutes left, when it really got into crunch time, I thought they did a good job stepping up,” said Bishop. “We lost a couple of close games early on, because we played not to lose instead of playing to win. Tonight we turned it around and picked it up, and that was a big plus and a confidence booster for our team. Our girls stayed poised on offense and tried to use the clock and get into our offense. We got some fouls in the end to get to the free throw line, which I think takes a little something out of them when they’re trying to make a comeback.”
That would be the closest the Broncos would get, as Somers knocked down the back end of a pair of free throws, the first of 7 straight for the Cougars over the final 3 and a half minutes to seal the win.
“Sometimes in the past we’ve lost that lead after we built it, so we have been working on situational plays in practice, and I think we executed them well,” said Somers. “The biggest thing tonight was that I was just more focused and I tried to make the easy passes instead of the fancy passes. When we have that lead, I tell myself there’s no way we’re going to lose this game if we don’t give them the ball. We need to make them earn every basket they get. My mentality is to take care of the ball, and that seemed to work.”
Kirksey led the Broncos with a team-high of 16 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field to go with a team-high 8 rebounds, and Kitaguchi added 12 points for Cal Poly Pomona. The Cougar defense held the Broncos to just 34 percent (12-for-35) shooting from the field in the second half.
Despite playing limited minutes due to foul trouble, junior forward Abby Johnson added 15 points and 8 rebounds, and senior guard Kristy Urbick added a career-high 12 points off the bench. Leathers finished with game-highs of 7 assists and 3 steals for the Cougars.
Azusa Pacific shot 58 percent (11-for-19) from the field in the opening half for a 38-31 advantage at the break. The Cougars used an 18-5 run to turn a 7-6 lead into its largest lead of the half at 25-11 after Sarah Leathers picked the pocket of Cal Poly Pomona guard Cassey Brick and fed Kristy Urbick along the right wing for a 3-pointer in transition.
With the win, Azusa Pacific improves to 5-3 on the season, while Cal Poly Pomona drops to 2-3 overall. The Cougars return to action at next week’s Trip Sports Cruzin’ Classic hosted by Barry University in Miami Shores, Fla., where they will take on Baker (Kan.) Dec. 16 at 8 p.m. Eastern time.
