Last year Azusa Pacific won 16 of its first 17 games and was ranked No. 3 in the NAIA and on top of the Golden State Athletic Conference before it went into an unexplainable funk. The Cougars lost 2 of 3, fell in both the polls and the standings. They eventually recovered and won the GSAC before they advanced to the Elite Eight of the NAIA Tournament.

This season the Cougars again opened with 16 victories in 17 games and were ranked No. 3 in the NAIA and on top of the GSAC. But the funk is back, and in a big way.

Unranked Cal Baptist shot a sizzling 68-percent (15-for-22) from the floor in the second half and ran circles around an uninspired, passionless set of Cougars to thump Azusa Pacific 96-85 before a crowd of 1,185 at the Felix Event Center Saturday evening.

The loss is Azusa Pacific's second straight and drops the Cougars into third place in the GSAC.

Junior Denson scored 10 of his game-high 29 points during a 5-minute, 22-6 Lancer run to lead Cal Baptist to it most convincing victory over Azusa Pacific since CBU posted a 20-point victory at the Cougars' expense 21 years ago in 1986. Densen was 10-for-13 from the floor tonight and a perfect 8-for-8 at the line. He added a game-high 7 assists to his game resume as well.

For the fourth straight game, Azusa Pacific trailed at halftime, giving way to a 40-38 Cal Baptist advantage. The 2 teams traded leads 9 times in the first half before the Lancers used a pair of Daniel Hestehauge free throws with 43 seconds left to take the lead into the locker room. The Cougars didn't help themselves by tanking 7-of-15 free throw attempted in the first 20 minutes of play.

The Lancers used an Andrew Bruckner dunk to the start the second half and never trailed the rest of the night. The Cougars stayed in the hunt for awhile, pulling to within 3 at 61-58 following a Mike Danielian conventional 3-point play. However, Azusa Pacific missed back-to-back treys and committed a pair of turnovers, and as fast as Denson can move down the court, Cal Baptist was up by 12 at 70-58. The Lancers continued to pour it on. Even when they missed, which was only 6 times in the second half, they worked the glass for additional points.

With just over 5 minutes to go, Bruckner put back a rare Denson miss, and Denson followed by stealing the inbound pass, making a lay-up while being fouled. When he converted the free throw, Cal Baptist had dropped Azusa Pacific into its largest deficit of the season, a 19-point hole at 85-66.

Andre Borrows came off the bench to drain 20 points, and Mark Roussin added 18 for the Lancers. Bruckner finished with 12 points and 6 rebounds.

Matt Oliver registered 15 points off the bench for Azusa Pacific, but 11 of those came in the final 2 minutes.

The 96 points are not only a season-high for Cal Baptist, they are also the most an Azusa Pacific team has surrendered since yielding 100 points to The Master's in the first week of January, 2005.

With the victory, Cal Baptist improves to 12-6 overall, 6-3 in the GSAC. Azusa Pacific, which has its 16-game home court winning streak snapped, falls to 16-3 overall, 6-3 in the GSAC.