AZUSA, Calif. -- The Azusa Pacific men's basketball team reached triple digits to defeat Westmont 100-86 in an exhibition Monday night in the Felix Event Center just four days before the official season opener.
The Cougars scored 57 points in the second half, including a 22-4 run that spanned over seven minutes in the second half that converted a six-point deficit into a 74-62 lead. That run got started with four Cougar lay-ups over a three-minute stretch, where the Azusa Pacific defense held the Warriors scoreless.
"In order to win college basketball games, you have to make multiple consecutive stops," head coach Justin Leslie said, "and early in the second half we made stops of three in a row, then five in a row, and then three in a row again. We were scoring when we were stopping them, and it really changed the whole dynamic of the game."
After the Warriors ended the scoreless stretch to tie the game, sophomore Petar Kutlesicserved as the catalyst to the Cougar offense, nailing a three-pointer and then assisting one ofJared Zoller's four treys. Kutlesic then made a lay-up to give the Cougars an eight-point lead, which never got any smaller for the remaining eight minutes in the game.
Redshirt freshman Connor Peterson, who got the start at point guard, assisted that lay-up to Kutlesic and had four assists in the game. In total, the Cougar offense assisted 27 of the 36 field goals made, making 74.1 percent of shots in the second half.
"I told them after the game that what I was most proud of was defensively the stops, but offensively was how well we shared the ball," Leslie said. "When we are sharing the ball, we are going to have a high shooting percentage."
Ten players in total entered the game for the Cougars and all of the 10 made multiple field goals in the win. Zoller paced the offense with 18 points, while Corey Langerveld added 14 points off the bench and junior transfer Joey Schreiber had 13 points off the bench with a perfect 5-for-5 mark from the field.
"This is a very deep team," Leslie said. "We have a lot of guys that can make an impact, and as far as I'm concerned, we have 10 starters on this team right now. They all can't start, so we have a rotation, and I think the way they shared the ball is indicative of the unselfish kind of players they are."
Junior forward Will Ward, who was the leading returning scorer from the Cougars' 2014-15 West Region championship team, registered 12 points and six rebounds with a block, steal, and three assists.
"As a coach, I've been preaching to these guys that we have to defend if we want a chance to be good," Leslie said. "I know we can score. We have lots of guys that can shoot and drive to the hoop, but we have to defend. Tonight we were exposed in the first half, where we weren't defending and they made us play."
The victory was Azusa Pacific's 15th consecutive win over Westmont, which was last year's NAIA national runner-up. The Cougars officially start the 2015-16 season on Friday night against Cal State San Bernardino in a four-team tournament hosted at Azusa Pacific.
