AZUSA, Calif. -- Azusa Pacific has shown a flair for the dramatic, especially at home and playing from behind, and the Cougars nearly rallied again by cutting a 12-point deficit with four minutes left to just two points with a minute to go against Dominican, which held on in the final minute for an 85-81 win.
"We've had some classics with Dominican over the years, because they're hard to play against and match up against us pretty well," Azusa Pacific head coach Justin Leslie said. "However, we missed our opportunities to get ahead and keep a lead, and you're not going to win against good teams going 18-for-34 at the foul line."
Corey Langerveld matched a career-high with a team-high 20 points and hit six-of-seven from three-point range despite being limited to just 19 minutes due to foul trouble, but Dominican countered with a 23-point effort from Jeremiah Gray, who also nailed six three-pointers including the answer to Ben Taufahema's three which cut the Penguin lead to 79-77 with a minute to play.
With Azusa Pacific trailing 74-62 with less than four minutes to play, Langerveld sparked a 15-5 run with his fifth three-pointer of the game, and he added his sixth later in the outburst to pull the Cougars within four, 75-71, with 2:14 to play. Gray answered with another three-pointer after a Dominican timeout, and Reverend Maduakor made one-of-two free throws to extend Dominican's cushion to 79-71 with 1:17 to play.
Just seven seconds later, Joey Schreiber converted a three-point play, and Taufahema's triple with 53.5 seconds left pulled the Cougars within two, 79-77. Once again, Gray responded with a three-pointer as the shot clock ticked down, but Connor Peterson got to the free throw line twice in the final 22 seconds, each time keeping Azusa Pacific within three points. Dominican was able to escape the Cougars' backcourt trap until Josh Armstrong drew a foul with 1.1 seconds remaining, and Armstrong made one-of-two at the line to seal the victory for the Penguins.
"The offensive and defensive sides are always related," Leslie said. "It's all about getting stops, because it's easier to go attack the defense when you get the ball off of a turnover or rebound. Our defensive errors were compounded by some poor decisions on the offensive end in that stretch, and that gave Dominican enough separation that we couldn't quite close the gap down the stretch."
Azusa Pacific fell to 10-12 overall and 5-7 in Pacific West Conference play, dropping to 7-4 this season at home, where the Cougars host four of their next five games before wrapping up the regular season with three straight road games. Dominican is now 6-14 overall and 5-9 in PacWest play.
"This puts us in a spot where we can't afford to lose any games," Leslie said. "We have some tough games coming up against teams ahead of us in the standings, and we have to find a way to beat them. For the teams below us, like the opportunity we had today, we can't afford not to capitalize. This puts us in a very tough spot, but all we can worry about is Chaminade on Monday, and hopefully rebound from this one and build some positive momentum."
Three others joined Langerveld in double figures for Azusa Pacific, with Peterson scoring a season-high 17 while Will Ferris was in double figures for the seventh time in the past nine games with 14 points. Petar Kutlesic scored 11 points to go with a team-high six rebounds, but the Cougars were outscored in the paint by a 30-16 margin.
Gray led Dominican with 23 points, scoring 16 after halftime to lead the Penguins, who hit seven-of-11 from three-point range in the second half. Maduakor added 15 points, and Henry Uwadiae added 14 points and a game-high nine rebounds.
