AZUSA, Calif. -- Just 48 hours after dismantling the hottest team in the Pacific West Conference, No. 23-ranked Azusa Pacific produced one of its most impressive defensive performances of the year, holding Hawai?i Pacific to just 18 first-half points as the Cougars rolled to a 78-50 win Saturday night at the Felix Event Center.
Azusa Pacific held the Sharks to just seven points through the first 16 minutes of the game, racing out to a 34-7 lead. At that point, HPU had made just one field goal in the game, and the Sharks narrowly avoided making Cougar history by surpassing the Cougars' program record for fewest points allowed in a half (13) with less than two minutes to play in the first half.
"This game was all about defense and what we could do to stop them," Azusa Pacific head coach Justin Leslie said. "We didn't shoot the ball particularly well tonight, but to still win by 28 points speaks to how well we defended. It's a team job to go out there when it wasn't our cleanest offensive game, and this was strictly about doing everything we could to take away their early looks and keep them from getting their offense rolling."
With the win, Azusa Pacific retained its share of the PacWest lead with Dixie State, a half-game ahead of third-place California Baptist, improving to 21-4 overall and 14-3 in the PacWest. With Point Loma's upset of BYU-Hawaii Saturday in San Diego, just two-and-a-half games separates the top five teams in the PacWest standings as the Cougars head into a Monday night matchup with Chaminade.
"It's on the line every night now, and we have to avoid anything that could cause us to lose focus any given night," Leslie said. "Playing a team like Chaminade for the first time with three games left in the season is a new challenge, but we have a mature veteran team that will prepare themselves for this new opponent because this is crunch time."
Senior guard Troy Leaf scored a game-high 16 points in just 21 minutes of action, and he sparked an 11-0 run to start the game with 10 points in the first five minutes of the game. He scored 14 of his 16 in the opening half, and three others joined Leaf in double figures for Azusa Pacific. Senior forward Christian Katuala added 13 points and a game-high seven rebounds, and senior guard Kevin Stafford and junior guard Bruce English scored 11 points each.
When Josh Morgan knocked down a three-pointer with 3:04 left in the half, it was only the second made field goal of the game for HPU. The Sharks finished the half just four-for-25 (16 percent) from the field, including just one-of-13 on three-pointers as the Cougars took a 41-18 halftime lead.
"This was one of those game plans where it required us defensively to play as a team," Leslie said. "The challenge for our guys was doing a lot of work off the ball, and I was really pleased with our focus collectively. We had a lot of great rotations and got a lot of stops, and that carried over to the offensive side where we shared the ball really well."
Azusa Pacific never let HPU get closer than 17 points in the second half, and when the Sharks did trim the margin to 59-42 with 7:17 to play, Stafford responded with a three-pointer to spark a 19-6 run that extended the lead to 30 points in the final minute of regulation. Stafford's triple was followed by threes from Petar Kutlesic and Bruce English, and Will Ward scored layups on consecutive possessions to give the Cougars a 72-45 lead with 3:38 left.
Hawai?i Pacific finished the game shooting just 26 percent (13-for-51) from the field, including a frigid five-for-30 (17 percent) on three-pointers. Luke Hager led the Sharks in scoring with 12 points, and Darry Jones Jr. added 11 points. Both players were three-for-nine from the field.
The 50-point total was the second-lowest allowed by Azusa Pacific since joining NCAA Division II in the fall of 2012, and it came less than two weeks after the Cougars registered their highest scoring output of the Division II era in a 109-79 win at Hawai?i Hilo.
The Cougars remain home for their final three games of the regular season, starting with a Monday night visit from Chaminade, followed by home games the next two Saturdays against California Baptist and Fresno Pacific to close out the regular season.
Azusa Pacific has clinched a berth in the PacWest Tournament, held March 5-7, at Concordia University in Irvine. Pre-sale tickets are $10 for an all-day pass or $25 for an all-tournament pass.
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