AZUSA, Calif. -- Redshirt freshman point guard Connor Peterson drilled two free throws with less than a minute to play, and Azusa Pacific held off a frenzied rally in the closing seconds to hang on for a thrilling 73-72 win over No. 10-ranked California Baptist in a crucial early-season Pacific West Conference clash Saturday night at the Felix Event Center.

Peterson's free throws gave the Cougars a 73-69 lead in a game it led for nearly 30 minutes, but Michael Smith pulled CBU right back into it when he converted a three-point play with 38 seconds left. Trevone Williams rebounded Bruce English's missed layup in traffic with 13 seconds left, setting off a frenetic final possession. Gelaun Wheelwright's pull-up jumper from the top of the key missed the basket entirely but fell into the hands of CBU point guard Jordan Giusti, whose layup was also off the mark. Junior forward Will Ward tipped the rebound away from the basket as time expired to seal the victory.

"The thing I like about playing California Baptist is that they are who they are," Azusa Pacific head coach Justin Leslie said. "They come out and compete, and it's smashmouth and straightforward. The only thing I asked our guys to do was fight for their spots, nail their scouting reports on the defensive side, and just be basketball players who competed together. We knew what the fight would be coming into the game, and it's only fitting that it would come down to the final seconds."

With the win, Azusa Pacific evens its PacWest record at 1-1 while improving to 6-2 overall, while California Baptist drops to 9-2 overall with an identical 1-1 PacWest mark.

All 10 Cougars who played in the game scored, led by 12-point efforts from senior guardsLyDell Cardwell and Bruce English. The Azusa Pacific bench accounted for 32 points, led by English and junior forward Joey Schreiber, who tallied 11 points. Ward also finished in double figures with 10 points. California Baptist was led by a 24-point performance from Smith.

English answered a Wheelwright three in the first half, which sparked a 17-3 run and turned a five-point deficit into a 29-20 advantage. A Smith layup with 9:54 left in the half was the only CBU field goal until the final two minutes of the first half, allowing the Cougars to take a 38-32 lead into halftime.

"We were dominant on the glass for most of the game, and CBU had to go crash the rebounds to get back into the game," Leslie said. "We had just enough possessions to score enough points, and the rebounding gave us a little bit of a margin for error."

Ward scored the first two buckets of the second half to extend the lead to 10 points, which was Azusa Pacific's largest lead of the game, at 42-32, but the Lancers reeled off 12 straight points over a span of just 2:12 to regain the lead at 44-42 with 16 minutes left in the game. The Cougars posted a 20-8 rebounding edge in the first half, holding CBU without an offensive rebound in the game's first 20 minutes.

With less than 10 minutes left, a Wheelwright trey was followed by a basket from Trevone Williams, giving CBU its last lead of the game at 59-58 with 8:10 to play. Cardwell answered by knocking down a three-pointer of his own to set off a 13-4 run over the next four minutes, which gave the Cougars an eight-point margin, 71-63, with less than four minutes left in the game.

"Coming off a tough overtime loss makes you hungry, so we came into this game with extreme focus," said Cardwell, who scored all 12 of his points on four-of-seven three-point shooting. "We lost a conference game Thursday night, and this was another chance to get a conference win. The coaches really did a great job getting us prepare on such a short turnaround, and we were really comfortable with the game plan, which really just calls for us to be ourselves."

Wheelwright's three with 1:27 left cut the lead to 71-69, but Peterson converted his free throws with 54 seconds remaining to give the Cougars a 73-69 cushion heading into the last-minute comeback attempt.

Azusa Pacific is now 19-2 all-time in the Felix Event Center while hosting California Baptist, winning 10 straight at home in the series.