LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- It will never be mistaken as a thing of beauty, but Azusa Pacific rallied from a five-point halftime deficit to pick up a 54-46 win over Cal State L.A. in the Cougars' road opener Tuesday night.

The game was tied at 42-42 with less than four minutes to play until Corey Langerveldsparked a 7-0 burst with his short runner in the lane. Senior guard Bruce English added a three-pointer, just the fourth of the game for the Cougars, and sophomore forward Petar Kutlesic knocked down a jumper that pushed the lead to 49-42 with 2:16 left.

Cal State L.A went scoreless from the four-minute mark until Tahron Morrison's layup with 32 seconds left cut the margin to 49-44, but Azusa Pacific hit five-of-six free throws down the stretch to put the game out of reach.

"This was an ugly game, and we had no rhythm to speak of in the first half," Azusa Pacific head coach Justin Leslie said. "We didn't shoot well or make good decisions with the ball in the first half, so I made the decision at halftime to make the game as physical as we could by pounding straight to the front of the rim with whoever we had. We were the deeper team, and the gamble on my part was to make it physical and ugly. Instead of fighting it, we just embraced it."

Sophomore forward Austin Dyer led all scorers with 13 points, and he helped Azusa Pacific establish a simple yet effective inside game late in the first half and throughout the second half after the Cougars stumbled through much of the first half. Dyer sent his team into halftime with momentum after ending the opening half with a jumper that kept Azusa Pacific within five, 29-24, heading into the second half.

The second half began with a 9-1 Azusa Pacific run, which was a crucial eight-point swing in a game neither team led by double figures. Junior forward Joey Schreiber drilled a game-tying three-pointer during the run, and he came up with a steal and breakaway dunk to finish it off and give the Cougars a 33-30 edge.

Although Azusa Pacific shot just 37 percent (19-for-51) from the field in the game, it held Cal State L.A. to just six-of-25 (.240) shooting from the field after halftime to set up the second-half rally.

"We needed to clean ourselves up defensively, and offensively we had to get them on their heels by attacking them," Leslie said. "Normally our defense fuels our offense, but tonight I would say our deliberate offense in the second half really fueled our defense. A big play for us was LyDell Cardwell challenging a shot that exposed an illegal screen, and getting that to start the second half slowed down their aggressiveness in screening us."

Schreiber scored nine points and grabbed six rebounds, and redshirt freshman point guardConnor Peterson finished with five points, four assists, three steals, and a game-high eight rebounds.

With the win, Azusa Pacific improves to 2-1 on the year heading into Friday's non-conference home matchup with The Master's College. Cal State L.A. drops to 0-3 on the year, with all three defeats against Pacific West Conference programs.