FRESNO, Calif. -- It only took 16 seconds for junior guard Sarah Leathers to take her first crack at the Azusa Pacific career 3-point record, and she made good on it, knocking down the 173rd 3-pointer of her 3-year career to give the Cougars a 3-0 lead in the Cougars’ 73-62 win at Fresno Pacific.
“I wasn’t really aware (of the record) until people started telling me,” said Leathers. “It wasn’t that I wanted to break the record on the first one, I just wanted to get my shooting going again.”
Leathers broke the record of 172 previously held by 2-year Cougar Allison Box, who sank a GSAC-record 120 3-pointers as a 2000 freshman.
“Even though she’s been in a little bit of a slump this season, Sarah’s a great shooter,” said Cougar head coach Danelle Bishop. “Once she gets her rhythm and confidence, she’s going to make our team really hard to stop.”
Senior guard Alyssa Ferdaszewski also passed a career milestone, becoming the 15th 1,000-point scorer in Azusa Pacific women’s basketball history.
“Even though Alyssa hasn’t been scoring as much as she did last year, she’s scoring the points we need her to score, and she’s adding to a lot of other areas,” said Bishop. “She’s a great team player, and I’m very happy for her. (Reaching 1,000 points) doesn’t surprise me at all, because she is such a quality all-around player.”
Ferdaszewski’s 1,000th point came on the fast break, her first field goal of the game after a pair of early free throws, and her layup capped a 17-5 run that gave the Cougars a 22-13 lead with just under 9 minutes to play in the opening half.
“If I have to choose between the team winning or me scoring 1,000 points, I’d rather win,” said Ferdaszewski. “(The milestone) was going through my head, so I didn’t want to force anything. It just so happened I was open on the fast break, and I got the basket and the 1,000 points.”
The win is Azusa Pacific’s 19th in the past 20 games, and the NAIA’s No. 13-ranked Cougars can now shift their complete focus on top-ranked Vanguard’s visit to Azusa this weekend. The Cougars’ only loss during the past 20 games was an 8-point defeat to the Lions at The Pit in Costa Mesa, and Azusa Pacific has already avenged its 2 other conference defeats to No. 10-ranked Point Loma Nazarene and Westmont when each visited the Felix Event Center for the second round of conference play. After its narrow victory at home over the Cougars on Jan. 13, Vanguard has won each of its home games since then by an average of over 37 points over 4 conference opponents that include Point Loma Nazarene.
“We know that we need to play our game and all be on the same page to be successful,” said Ferdaszewski, who came off the bench for 13 points in an 81-80 home victory over Vanguard in 2005, the Cougars’ only win over the Lions in 9 tries during her career. “We know what we need to do, but it’s about being mentally tough enough to go out there and actually stop them.”
Despite the early milestones, the Cougars found themselves on the wrong end of a 15-8 run to finish the half, and Fresno Pacific led 33-32 at the break. The first 7 minutes of the second half featured 3 lead changes and 5 ties before junior forward Abby Johnson and senior forward Meliame Hala’ufia hit back-to-back baskets off assists from Leathers, then a pair of free throws from senior Kristy Urbick that gave the Cougars a 51-45 lead with 11 minutes remaining.
After Kari Cox cut the Cougar lead to 53-49 with 9 and a half minutes to play, GSAC Player of the Year candidate Monica Somers sank 4 straight free throws, Johnson hit a pair of free throws and Leathers drilled her second 3-pointer of the game to cap a 9-3 run that pushed the lead to 62-52 with just under 5 minutes remaining. The Sunbirds got back to within 7 points at 63-56, but a pair of Hala’ufia baskets sandwiched a Johnson jumper for a 6-point spurt that gave the Cougars their largest lead of the game at 69-56 with 2 and a half minutes to play.
“I don’t think we’ve been looking ahead at all, because our girls have taken each of our opponents as a threat,” said Bishop. “I give a lot of credit to our opponents for coming out and playing with a lot of heart. (Saturday’s game) will be a big challenge, and I think we’ll be up for it.”
Somers, the GSAC’s leading individual scorer (overall and conference-only) crossed the 20-point barrier for the 14th time this season, finishing with a game-high 24 points, including 9-of-10 at the charity stripe. Somers is now just 16 free throws away from breaking the Azusa Pacific single-season free throw record, and she now sits just 102 points from becoming the third-highest scorer in Cougar history. She also grabbed 7 rebounds and dished out 5 assists.
“Monica probably could have scored more tonight, but she’s been trying to help us work the ball inside a little more,” said Bishop. “I don’t think she’s forcing anything, she’s just taking the gaps and helping get other teams in foul trouble by getting to the free throw line.”
Leathers finished with 10 points and a game-high 6 assists, while Ferdaszewski scored all 6 of her points in the opening half of play. Hala’ufia made all 4 of her second-half field goal attempts, scoring 9 of her 13 points and grabbing 6 of her team-high 8 rebounds after halftime, leading Azusa Pacific to a 23-10 second-half domination on the glass.
Katie Williams was the only Sunbirds player to reach double figures, scoring 19 points on perfect 8-of-8 shooting from the field. She hit 3 treys, the last with 39 seconds left to bring Fresno Pacific to within 8 points at 70-62, but she fouled out with 23 seconds left in the game and was only able to play 19 minutes with the foul trouble.
With the win, Azusa Pacific improves to 21-4 overall, while Fresno Pacific drops to 17-10 overall, 7-10 in the GSAC. The Sunbirds maintain sole possession of sixth place in the GSAC after Westmont defeated 6-10 Biola in Santa Barbara this evening.
