AZUSA, Calif. -- Slowly but surely, Azusa Pacific is beginning to perfect its recipe for success.
Along with the usual hot hand from long range, the Cougars added several second-half defensive stops along with a pinch of game-sealing free throws to the mix to complete an 81-74 win over Point Loma Monday night.
Point Loma erased a 10-point deficit and took a four-point lead, 73-69, with two minutes left with an 18-4 run, holding the Cougars to just four points in a stretch lasting nearly 10 minutes. After Azusa Pacific hit three-of-four free throws in the next 30 seconds to close the gap to a single point, 73-72, senior guard Justin Byrd poked the ball away from PLNU point guard Josh Rodriguez and finished the break at the other end with the go-ahead layup.
Joey Schreiber followed on the next possession with a three-pointer, his fourth of the game, to extend the lead to 77-73 with 38 seconds to play, and Corey Langerveld converted four-of-four free throws in the final 30 seconds to keep the game out of reach.
"In order to learn how to win close games, you have to be able to get stops and rebounds, which we did, and we need to value the ball on the offensive end," Azusa Pacific head coach Justin Leslie said. "The other part of doing the right thing to close it out was being able to find our best free throw shooter (Langerveld) and get him the ball to close it out at the line. That takes a lot of guys making the right decisions to put the ball in the right place, and that was some maturity on display. As a result, we kept getting good possession after good possession and kept extending that lead."
Schreiber led all scorers with 23 points, and he grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds for his third double-double of the season. Langerveld added 18 points and six rebounds, and Petar Kutlesic put together a 15-point, six-rebound, four-assist effort for the Cougars, who committed just eight turnovers and shot 50 percent (30-for-60) from the field as a team.
"I'm very proud of our effort tonight," Leslie said. "Point Loma was scoring at a very efficient clip in the first half, and when they got it rolling a little bit, I was nervous that offensively we might not be able to answer. I was very pleased with our poise to keep answering back, and Petar was fantastic in how he went right back at them to get things around the hoop and attack their big man. He kept us close early on, and I felt like we got into a rhythm defending them in the second half."
Connor Peterson scored nine points along with a team-high five assists, while Byrd tallied 11 points and a game-high three steals for Azusa Pacific, which improved to 10-10 overall and 5-5 in the PacWest. The Cougars pulled to one game within Point Loma in the conference standings, as the loss dropped the Sea Lions to 10-7 overall and 6-4 in the PacWest.
Neither team led by more than four points in the first half until Langerveld took a steal coast-to-coast for a dunk that gave Azusa Pacific a 36-30 edge with 5:08 left in the first half. After trading layups on the next two possessions to make it 38-32, Point Loma caught fire from long range, hitting four consecutive three-pointers in a 12-2 run to take a 44-40 lead with 1:48 left in the first half. Kutlesic answered with a layup in the paint, and a Schreiber free throw cut the Sea Lions' halftime lead to 44-43.
Early in the second half, Schreiber and Peterson each hit three-pointers to spark a 10-2 run that gave Azusa Pacific a 55-47 edge with 15:37 to play. The Cougars not only maintained that lead, but twice extended it to double digits when a Peterson layup in transition made it 60-50 with 13:28 left before another Schreiber trey with 11:30 remaining gave Azusa Pacific a 65-55 edge.
Point Loma rallied with its 18-4 run, taking a 70-69 lead on a Rodriguez layup with 3:41 left in the game and extending it to 73-69 on a Sterling Somers three with 2:06 to play. Schreiber scored the Cougars' only points in that stretch, and Kutlesic ended the drought with a pair of free throws that cut the margin to 73-71 with 1:50 remaining. Byrd hit one-of-two free throws with 1:27 left before his steal and score that pushed Azusa Pacific back in front just 10 seconds later.
"Even though they came back from 10 points down to take a lead, we just stayed the course and all of a sudden those shots started falling," Leslie said. "When Justin (Byrd) got the steal and a run out, that changed the tone of the game."
Point Loma was led by Vince Boumann's 19-point, 15-rebound double-double, while Rodriguez added 12 points, five rebounds, and six assists. The Sea Lions, who shot 57 percent (17-for-30) in the first half, were just 31 percent (11-for-35) after halftime.
After playing three games in a five-day stretch, Azusa Pacific returns to action to close out the week with a Saturday night visit to Dixie State in St. George, Utah.
