IRVINE, Calif. -- For two years running, Azusa Pacific has emerged from the grueling 20-game Pacific West Conference as the regular-season champion. For two hours Saturday afternoon, the two-time reigning PacWest champions were completely outplayed by No. 3-seeded California Baptist as the Lancers handed the outright regular-season champions Cougars a 101-64 defeat to claim the conference tournament title.

Azusa Pacific was outplayed thoroughly in every sense, as California Baptist shot better than any Cougar opponent this year, held the Cougars to a season-low shooting percentage, and became the first team this year to reach triple digits against Azusa Pacific. In addition, the Cougars coughed up 15 turnovers and were out-rebounded by a 44-29 margin.

With the win, California Baptist improves to 27-6 on the year and receives the PacWest's automatic berth into next week's NCAA Division II West Regional Championship. Azusa Pacific falls to 22-8 overall, and will likely receive an at-large bid into the eight-team regional tournament.

Azusa Pacific led through the first five minutes of Saturday's tournament championship game, but California Baptist responded with a vengeance, reeling off a 29-4 run to take control of the game. The Lancers knocked down seven three-pointers during the run, including four from Gelaun Wheelwright and two more from point guard Marquise Mosley.

The closest Azusa Pacific got the rest of the way was an 18-point margin late in the first half, after Corey Langerveld hit a pair of free throws with 3:02 left, but CBU went into halftime holding a commanding 51-30 advantage. The spread fluctuated between 20 and 26 points for the first 11 minutes of the second half before California Baptist put some more distance on the Cougars as Michael Smith sparked a 14-4 run with six of his game-high 26 points to extend the lead to 88-55 with 6:25 left.

Wheelwright matched Smith for the scoring game-high, hitting six-of-10 three-pointers en route to a 26-point, 11-rebound double-double. Smith was 10-of-16 from the field, adding five rebounds and a game-high four steals, leading the Lancers to a 58 percent (39-for-67) shooting effort from the field, which included a 57 percent (13-for-23) clip on three-pointers.

Connor Peterson and LyDell Cardwell were Azusa Pacific's scoring leaders with 12 points each, while Bruce English recorded 11 points. Peterson was named to the All-Tournament team, along with Petar Kutlesic, who was limited to two points but grabbed a team-high seven rebounds with a pair of steals.