AZUSA, Calif. -- Azusa Pacific's double-digit first half lead evaporated in less than five minutes, as the Cougars dropped a 73-68 decision to Seattle Pacific in a rematch of last year's NCAA Division II West Region first round matchup between the teams.
Junior forward Petar Kutlesic notched 20 points and 12 rebounds to notch his second double-double of the season, but Seattle Pacific's Coleman Wooten scored 21 and crashed the boards for a game-high 14 rebounds to lead the Falcons to the road win. With the defeat, Azusa Pacific drops to 3-5 overall, while Seattle Pacific is now 3-2 overall.
Azusa Pacific led by as many as 13 points in the first half, taking a 25-12 lead with 7:14 left when junior guard Corey Langerveld drilled a three-pointer. Five minutes later, the Cougar lead still sat in double digits at 34-24, but Tony Miller completed a 16-point opening half with his third three-pointer while Sam Simpson added a fast-break layup to pull SPU within five at halftime, 34-29.
"We defended well in the first half, and if Miller didn't make a lot of his tough shots in the first half, we would have had them down significantly," Azusa Pacific head coach Justin Leslie said. "We had a chance to gain some separation in the first half when we were up by double figures, but instead they were able to close it to five. I thought that was a big point in the game, where we could have gotten an edge but we just didn't make it happen."
Wooten opened the second half with a putback layup off his offensive rebound, and he added a three-point play with 18:12 to play in the game to tie the game at 34-34. Kutlesic gave Azusa Pacific its last lead of the game, 38-36, with 16:57 to play, but Wooten answered at the other end with another driving layup, and Joe Rasmussen gave Seattle Pacific the lead for good with a three-pointer.
A Connor Peterson pull-up jumper in the lane with 9:41 to play pulled Azusa Pacific within three points, 54-51, but that was the closest the Cougars got the rest of the way. Seattle Pacific scored 11 of the next 15 points, extending the lead to 65-55 with 4:53 remaining, but a Justin Byrd layup with just over a minute remaining capped an 8-1 run and slashed the lead back down to three, 67-64, with 1:08 to play.
Azusa Pacific shot 50 percent (15-for-30) from the field, including a 3-for-11 performance from three-point range, but the Cougars cooled off after halftime, hitting just 1-of-13 attempts from long range in the second half. Seattle Pacific made only one more three-pointer in the game than Azusa Pacific, but the Falcons attacked the basket and went 22-for-27 on free throws while the Cougars hit just 4-of-6 free throw attempts.
"There's such a fine line between success and failure, and success is only found in all the little things that go beyond the box score," Leslie said. "It's all the little things that go into the game of basketball that are required for success. We need to grow up, and we've got to get a lot better on the defensive side of the ball, because we're just not there."
Miller scored 16 of his 19 points in the first half to keep Seattle Pacific in the game while the rest of the Falcons were a combined 6-of-27 from the field in the first half. SPU outrebounded Azusa Pacific by a 43-32 margin, which led to a 12-3 edge over the Cougars in second chance points.
The Cougar Classic concludes on Saturday, Nov. 25, with Seattle Pacific taking on Point Loma, while Azusa Pacific hosts Cal State L.A. to round out the two-day event.
