Box Score IRVINE, Calif. – Survive and advance is the motto across college basketball in March. That's exactly what Azusa Pacific did on Thursday afternoon.

In their first round match-up with Academy of Art at the PacWest tournament, the Cougars grinded out a 69-59 victory to advance to the semifinals.

Azusa Pacific will take on Hawaii Pacific on Friday afternoon at 1:45 p.m. at Concordia University. The winner of that match-up will face the winner between California Baptist and Point Loma for the league's tournament title. The tournament champion also receives the PacWest's automatic berth into the NCAA Division II Championships.

Thursday's win was the first in three chances against Academy of Art (18-11) this season. Earlier this season, the Urban Knights posted a pair of 74-70 victory.

Despite turning the ball over 22 times and shooting just 36.4 percent (24-for-66) from the field Azusa Pacific prevailed in a game that was played at an inconsistent pace.

Each team had a rough time finding the bottom of the hoop during the first stanza. Despite hitting on just six of their first 15 shots, Azusa Pacific (19-9) raced out to a 14-4 lead. The Cougars limited Academy of Art to just an 11.1 percent shooting effort (2-for-18) just past the eight-minute mark. 

A majority of the half was played with little to no rhythm to it as the teams were whistled for 22 total fouls while committing 18 turnovers. Despite the choppy play, Azusa Pacific held the lead throughout the opening session. Jasim Guinn seemingly brought the Urban Knights all the way back from their 10-point deficit as she nailed a three-pointer with 12 seconds left in the frame to tie the game at 27-27. However, an Elena Ala driving lay-up with two ticks left gave the Cougars a 29-27 edge at halftime. 

Despite coming out of the locker room by scoring eight of the first 10 points at taking a 38-29 left, the Cougars couldn't put away a pesky Urban Knights squad. Spurred on by a feisty efforts by Zoie Sheng Jasmin Guinn, Academy of Art went on an 18-5 scoring spree to take a 47-44 edge with just over 10 minutes remaining. During that stretch Sheng and Guinn combined to score 12 points. 

Each team staked a claim to a small lead but neither team could get a lead larger than two points until Azusa Pacific came-up with a mini-spurt. Tied at 51-51 with 5:22 left, the Cougars scored on three straight possessions to take a 59-54 lead. During that 8-3 run, Katie Powell hit two three-pointers and Kelly Hardeman converted a lay-up off a nice pass from Ala. 

That scoring run all but sealed the win as the Urban Knight couldn't get their deficit down to a single possession as the closing minutes ticked away. 

Hardeman scored a team high 19 points while grabbing a game best 17 rebounds. It was the juniors 15th double-double of the season. Jones fought through foul trouble to scored 15 points, corral 11 rebounds and dish out four assists. Powell notched a 12-point effort in 30 minutes of court time. 

As a team the Cougars grabbed a season high 62 rebounds (24 of which were on the offensive end). 

Guinn paced the Urban Knight afternoon as she scored a game best 31 points and seized 10 rebounds.