RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- The road to the Pacific West Conference men's basketball title will not run through Riverside, not after Azusa Pacific shut down No. 8-ranked California Baptist's high-scoring offense for a wild 73-71 road victory that lifted the Cougars into sole possession of the PacWest lead.

In a game with 19 lead changes and nine ties, senior guard Bruce English beat the shot clock for a go-ahead bucket with 23.6 seconds remaining to put Azusa Pacific in front for good, 72-71. After Gelaun Wheelwright stepped out of bounds with five seconds left, English added a free throw with four seconds remaining for the final two-point margin. Wheelwright then went to the free throw line with seven-tenths of a second to play for two free throws and a chance to tie the game. After he missed both, Taj Spencer's attempted tip in fell short of the basket as time expired.

"I had the feeling that we needed a bucket, and I took it on myself to try to get that basket," English said. "The past couple weeks, the coaches have also been encouraging me to make free throws more of a part of my game. I've really worked on that the last week, so when I went to the line late in the game, I reflected on that and just thought that this was the perfect opportunity to help my team in that situation."

The victory snapped California Baptist's 24-game home winning streak, as Azusa Pacific handed the Lancers their first home defeat to a PacWest opponent in the last three seasons. More importantly, the season sweep gave the Cougars, who are now 12-3 overall and 6-1 in the PacWest, sole possession of the PacWest lead. California Baptist, which fell to 15-3 overall and 6-2 in the PacWest, is on the road for its next four games and nine of its final 12.

"We came into the year not knowing exactly what this team had, so the coaching staff has just continued to pour into them and challenge them to work and hold themselves to their own high standard each day," Azusa Pacific head coach Justin Leslie said. "We knew that at some point over the course of time, it would click. I didn't think it would be clicking this soon, but I'm thrilled that we already have the road wins we have under our belt and now lead the conference with the schedule we've played. Even then, this team is hungry and wants to get better."

English led Azusa Pacific with 17 points, including 12 first-half points which kept the Cougars within striking distance early in the game as well as the eventual game-winner with the game on the line in the final minute. Sophomore forward Petar Kutlesic added 14 points, and senior forward Jared Zoller drilled three critical second-half three-pointers to finish with 13 points.

California Baptist was led by Michael Smith's 28-point, nine-rebound effort, but he was the only CBU player to shoot better than 50 percent from the field as the PacWest's best scoring offense was held to a .397 (27-for-68) overall shooting percentage, which included a .143 (three-for-21) clip from three-point range.

"We have a chance to be one of the best defensive teams Azusa Pacific has ever had," Leslie said. "To go beat great teams on the road, you have to defend. We knew this was a team averaging well over 100 points over its last six games, and we just kept defending them."

California Baptist led by as many as seven points in the first half, taking a 30-23 lead when Smith converted a three-point play, but English answered with a layup on the ensuing possession and scored the Cougars' final 10 points of the first half to cut the Lancers' lead to 36-33 at the break. Smith sparked a 6-0 run for CBU after halftime, expanding the lead to 42-33 before Kutlesic snapped the Cougars' scoring drought with consecutive short jumpers as Azusa Pacific reeled off 11 straight points to take a 44-42 lead with 13:31 to play on Zoller's first of three second-half three-pointers.

"Our seniors needed to step up, and they did tonight," Leslie said. "Bruce and Jared were clutch when it counted, and Jared really competed at both ends of the floor and gave us something great. We've got guys on this roster who went sub-.500 their first year and they've been through some rough patches and understand how hard it is to win games."

Neither team led by more than three points over the final 15:44 of the game, and the lead changed hands 13 times in the final 13:31. Smith broke a 55-55 tie with a three-pointer from the right wing with 6:34 to play, but freshman point guard Connor Peterson's jumper with just under five minutes left put the Cougars up, 59-58, with 4:58 left. Peterson's basket was the first of four consecutive lead-changing possessions, as Taj Spencer scored inside to answer Peterson before Kutlesic drained a three which was answered by a Smith triple that gave CBU a 63-62 lead with 3:57 remaining.

Minutes later, Smith put back his own miss with 2:05 to play, lifting California Baptist to a 69-67 lead, but junior forward Joey Schreiber responded with a three-pointer as he was fouled with 1:50 to play. That three-pointer represented Schreiber's only points of the game, but it gave Azusa Pacific the lead until a pair of Smith free throws with 54 seconds left pushed the Lancers ahead by one, 71-70. That set up English's go-ahead bucket as the shot clock was winding down.

"I didn't get too many opportunities to score throughout the game, but once I saw a little bit of space, I felt confident that I would make it," Schreiber said. "We feel like we've been playing in the shadow of last year's team in some ways, but we've broken through that and made this year our year. A win like this builds a lot of confidence going into the rest of the schedule."

Azusa Pacific returns to action on a short turnaround, hosting Notre Dame de Namur on Monday, Jan. 18, at 7:30 p.m. at the Felix Event Center. Later in the week, the Cougars will visit Holy Names, Academy of Art, and Dominican to wrap up a stretch of four games in eight days.