HILO, HAWAI'I -- Azusa Pacific claimed its second consecutive Pacific West Conference title Saturday night, wrapping up the 2015-16 regular season just before the West Coast stroke of midnight with an 85-75 road win over Hawai'i Hilo.

The Cougars fended off a late rally from a Hawai'i Hilo team which was fighting to extend its own season at next week's PacWest Tournament. The Vulcans closed the gap from 20 points with a 16-2 run, pulling within six at 81-75 with just over a minute to play before Connor Peterson and Bruce English each converted a pair of free throws in the final minute to put the game away.

"We knew Hawai'i Hilo had a chance to get into the tournament, so we had to respect the energy and passion they would bring to the game," Azusa Pacific head coach Justin Lesliesaid. "We had to stick to the fundamentals we hang our hat on. Even thought we had a couple turnovers late and missed some free throws, we had built enough margin for error to pull this game out. We had to make some adjustments down the stretch, but We've been in that situation a lot before, and I think that gives us enough of an idea as a staff and team of what to expect from each other."

The victory completed an impressive turnaround for Azusa Pacific, which completed the regular season with a 21-7 overall record and went 15-5 in PacWest play despite replacing an all-senior starting five from last year's PacWest and NCAA Division II West Region championship team. The Cougars' senior trio of English, LyDell Cardwell, and Jared Zollerled the way to the repeat, combining for 42 points in the regular-season finale to clinch their place among a four-team logjam at the top of the PacWest standings.

Azusa Pacific entered the final day of the regular season trailing Concordia, which lost at Dixie State Saturday night in St. George, Utah, to set up the four-team first-place tie between Azusa Pacific, Concordia, Dixie State, and California Baptist, which was a one-point winner at Holy Names Saturday.

Word of Dixie State's win over Concordia made its way across three time zones to the doorstep of Azusa Pacific's locker room on the Big Island just moments before Leslie's team took the floor for pregame warmups.

"I immediately told the guys that Dixie State did their job to help give us an open door that we had to step through together," Leslie said. "Losing what we did from last year, just about everyone expected us to have a big drop off this year. This team is completely different from last year's, and it's much more balanced than we've had in a long time."

By sweeping the season series with all three of the PacWest co-leaders, Azusa Pacific claimed the head-to-head tiebreaker and earned recognition as the outright conference champion along with the No. 1-seed at next week's PacWest Men's Basketball Championship in Irvine. The Cougars earn a first-round bye in the six-team tournament and will face the winner of Thursday's matchup between No. 4-seed Hawai'i Pacific and No. 5-seed BYU-Hawaii on Friday at 5 p.m.

The conference championship is the 15th all-time for Azusa Pacific, which won 13 Golden State Athletic Conference titles over a 14-year stretch (1993-2006) and now owns back-to-back PacWest titles in the program's first two years of active NCAA Division II membership.

"This championship speaks to the work and investment of the coaching staff to get these guys prepared to step up and take on new roles," said Leslie, who has been a part of 10 of the program's 15 conference titles as a player, assistant coach, and now head coach. "We have a program at Azusa Pacific, and it's not about just one guy or just one group of guys, because it's a continued investment by everybody who's been involved with this program over the years. That's what I'm most proud of, because it's that collective investment which manifests itself in championships."

The Cougars jumped to an early lead within the first four minutes of the game and extended the first-half lead into double digits before heading into halftime with a 43-33 edge. After a Jordan Russell three pulled UHH within five, 49-44, with 16:26 remaining, Kutlesic knocked down a three-pointer which sparked an 18-1 run over the next six minutes. That took Azusa Pacific's lead over 20 points for the first time with a 67-45 edge with 10:35 to play.

A Cardwell jumper in the paint gave the Cougars their largest lead of the game, 74-50, with 8:09 left, and Azusa Pacific still led by 20 points when a Will Ward layup made it 79-59 with 5:25 to play. The Cougars didn't score again from the field, scoring their final six points on free throws as Hawai'i Hilo rallied behind three-pointers on consecutive possessions from Parker Farris and Salim Gloyd to trim the margin to 81-75 with 1:16 left.

Cardwell finished with a team-high 18 points on seven-of-10 shooting from the floor with three three-pointers, and English scored 16 points with Zoller contributing eight points. Each of the three Cougar seniors knocked down at least two three-pointers in the win, and the trio combined to shoot 63 percent (15-for-24) overall including a 64 percent (seven-for-11) clip from three-point range. Peterson added 15 points and five rebounds, while sophomore forwardPetar Kutlesic scored 12 points with a team-high seven rebounds.