OAKLAND, Calif. -- Azusa Pacific head coach Justin Leslie collected his 200th career coaching victory as the Cougars opened up a three-game Bay Area road trip with a 94-83 win over Holy Names Thursday night.

Leslie's career coaching record now stands at 200-78, as he becomes the third coach in Azusa Pacific men's basketball history to reach the 200-win milestone, joining NAIA Hall of Fame Coaches Cliff Hamlow and Bill Odell with the accomplishment, which came during his ninth season at the helm.

"I'm the caretaker of what those before me built, and I respect that and take a lot of pride in it," said Leslie, who played collegiately for Odell at Azusa Pacific and coached alongside Odell as an assistant before taking over the Cougar program in 2007-08. "I think 200 wins is a reflection of being fortunate enough to have some unbelievable players over the years, from stars to role players who have invested in the program and helped build it."

"As I think of everyone who's worked for me over the years to make the program better, I realize that this is something a lot of people have invested in. We've got an administration and a school that cares about us, wants us to be good, and allows me to do what I do, and we have tremendous support from our boosters and alumni to do the extra little things that allow us to run a first-class program. There's a whole team of people who are involved and invested in the ministry we have with this program, and the wins are a byproduct of how we do that," Leslie added.

With the win, Azusa Pacific improved to 14-3 overall and 8-1 in the Pacific West Conference, as the Cougars maintained a one-game lead in the conference standings over Concordia and Hawaii Pacific, which currently share second place in the PacWest. The Cougars are in the midst of a five-game stretch in a span of just 10 days, kicking off the last five days of that stretch with the first of three road games in the Bay Area. Up next is a Saturday afternoon visit to Academy of Art at Kezar Pavilion before the trip wraps up Monday night at Dominican.

Senior guard LyDell Cardwell led a group of five Azusa Pacific scorers in double figures, finishing with 21 points although the Cougars needed to survive a second-half rally from Holy Names. A Cardwell three-pointer with 16:38 left in the game gave Azusa Pacific a 21-point advantage, its largest lead of the game, but the Hawks had slashed the margin to just six points heading into the final four minutes of the contest.

"It's probably safe to say we're the more talented team and the deeper team, but Holy Names competed with all it had, competing for each possession and making us earn everything we had," Leslie said. "I have a lot of respect for the way Holy Names played and competed, and at the end of the day, every road win in the PacWest is huge. We did just enough to give ourselves the lead we needed to close it out, so we'll take it and move on to the next one."

Joshua Crum scored a game-high 34 points for Holy Names, and he knocked down a pair of free throws with 2:48 left to answer a Petar Kutlesic layup and keep the Hawks within six points, 82-76. However, Corey Langerveld finished off a press break with a layup, and Cardwell hit a pair of free throws with 1:37 left to give the Cougars some breathing room with an 86-76 cushion. Holy Names never got closer than nine points the rest of the way.

Cardwell scored 14 of his 21 points after halftime, which is when Holy Names' leading scorer Joshua Crum scored 26 of his 34 points. Langerveld added 16 points for the Cougars, while Kutlesic tallied 15 points to go with a team-high seven rebounds. Redshirt freshman point guard Connor Peterson added 12 points with four assists, and junior forward Will Wardscored 11 points and tallied five rebounds.

As a team, Azusa Pacific hit six-of-nine first-half three-pointers en route to a 42-27 halftime edge, and the Cougars finished the game shooting 52 percent (34-for-66) overall and 48 percent (10-for-21) on three-pointers. The Cougars' PacWest-leading defense held HNU to an overall shooting percentage of 41 percent (28-for-68), which included a seven-for-28 (25 percent) three-point performance for the Hawks.

Justin Leslie's Year By Year Coaching Record

SEASON     W-L
2007-08   24-11
2008-09   24-10
2009-10   28-10
2010-11   29-6
2011-12   24-8
2012-13   13-14
2013-14   17-10
2014-15   27-6
2015-16   14-3
TOTAL    200-78 (9 seasons)