The Stars, who steamrolled their first 2 foes in this championship tournament and appeared to be destined for a date in Tuesday's title game, met their match in Azusa Pacific – at least for 24 minutes. An efficient set of Cougars executed their offense to near perfection in the first half and defensively frustrated the Stars at every turn. As a result, Azusa Pacific built a surprising 13-point halftime lead at 39-26 against an OCU team that had been beaten by just one team all season.

The Cougars continued their sterling play in the early minutes of the second half, and when Scott Zea drained a short jumper, Azusa Pacific found itself up by 16 at 50-34. That was the end of the good times for Azusa Pacific. Last year's national runner-up, Oklahoma City out-scored Azusa Pacific by 32 points over the final 16-minutes, making 16 of its final 28 shots to overrun the Cougars for the 16-point victory to earn a repeat appearance in the NAIA semifinals.

Willie Irick, the Stars leading scorer who was shutout in the first half, ignited the comeback with a long trey and went on to score all 15 of his points in the second half. Kameron Gray was equal to the task, tallying 15 of his game-high 21 in the second half as the pair combined for 30 of the Stars' 58 second-half points.

"Willie decided that, 'Hey, I'm the guy, Get me the ball. We're going to do this thing'" said OCU head coach Ray Harper. "He was man amongst boys in the second half."

Oklahoma City went on a 26-5 run in less than 8 minutes to take over the game and assume a 60-55 lead with 8:46 remaining. Though Azusa Pacific had surrendered a couple of second-half 20-point leads in other games this season, this was not a matter of the Cougars collapsing but rather Oklahoma City playing to its level of talent.

"They are just deeper and better," said Azusa Pacific head coach Bill Odell. "We couldn't stop them. They're a tough to match-up, and when you consider that their best player (Willie Irick) comes off the bench, it just shows you how deep and balanced they are."

Azusa Pacific did not go quietly into the night, and still was within 4 at 69-65 following a Tristan King bucket with 3-and-a-half minutes to play. However, it was the last Cougar field goal of the game, and OCU closed out with an 18-5 run for the double-digit victory.

"We ran out of steam," Odell simply said. "They picked up their defensive tempo in the second half, and we had a harder time getting into our offense. We were further out in our sets and our angles weren't good. I felt like in the first half we could call anything, and it would work."

Behind the hot hand of Todd Martin, the Cougars took over the game in the early going, using a 16-4 run to put space between them and OCU. Martin scored 15 of his team-high 17 points in the first half, burying 6-of-7 shots, including a trio of treys. The Cougars shot at a .542 (13-of-24) clip in the first half while holding the Stars to a dismal .294 (10-for-34) pace in the opening 20 minutes.

However, it was a reversal of fortunes in the second half. The Stars torched the nets over the final 20 minutes, making 19-of 33 (.576) shots, while the Cougars could not find a net in the building, missing 25-of-35 shots. It didn't help that Martin got into foul trouble and was limited to just 15 minutes of playing time for the game.

B.J. Walker aided Oklahoma City's attack with 16 points and 6 rebounds while Duane John chipped in with 14 points and a game high 11 rebounds.

Besides Martin, 3 other Cougars scored in double figures with King, Demario Butler and Matt Oliver all tallying 10 points. Butler added a team-high 8 rebounds.

For the second consecutive year, Azusa Pacific's season comes to an end in the "Elite Eight." The Cougars close out the campaign with a 29-7 record, while Oklahoma City takes a 33-2 record into Monday's semifinal vs. Faulkner (Ala.).