AZUSA, Calif. -- Azusa Pacific saved its best performance to date for a "Whiteout" crowd of 1,685, as the Cougars hit their first seven shots of the game and took a 27-point halftime lead before cruising to an 84-55 win over Concordia Saturday afternoon at the Felix Event Center.
Azusa Pacific didn't miss a shot in the first five minutes of the game, using five different scorers to go seven-for-seven including three from three-point range to take a 17-6 lead. Corey Langerveld hit another pair of three-pointers during a 13-3 run that pushed the lead to 30-11, and Connor Peterson swished a halfcourt buzzer-beater to close out the first half with a 47-20 lead.
"I looked up and saw a teammate open, but I was worried about a steal, so I just had to throw that one up," Peterson said. "It felt good right when it came out of my hands, so I had a good feeling it was going to go in."
By the time the first-half ended, the Cougars sank 20-of-32 (.625) from the field including 6-of-10 (.600) from three-point range, all while holding Concordia to just 8-of-31 (.258) shooting in the opening half. Langerveld led the way with 14 of his 20 points in the game, and Peterson's halfcourt prayer gave him 11 points at the time before he finished with a game-high 22 points.
"The coaching staff has done an amazing job of preparing the team for what they're going to see and what's going to work for us, and the players have really been locking into those things that will translate into success," Azusa Pacific head coach Justin Leslie said. "They did a wonderful job of finding the right tempo early on, and when you have success on one end, it gives you more energy on the other side. We guarded well and played efficiently on offense, and it led to a fantastic start to the game for us."
The victory gave Azusa Pacific its fourth straight win, as the Cougars improved to 14-13 overall and 9-8 in Pacific West Conference play. Concordia dropped to 14-10 overall, 10-6 PacWest. The victory also wrapped up a set of six games played over a 15-day stretch.
"The key to this stretch is just being able to refresh your mind a little bit," Peterson said. "Other teams are playing a similar amount of games, so you just have to dig in mentally, get in a stance, and fight through it. You want to say that you approach every game the same way, but we have two seniors who transferred in and fit in really well with our program, so we wanted to send them off the right way."
As good as the first half was, Azusa Pacific still outscored Concordia in the second half, expanding the lead as wide as 35 points on a Justin Byrd three-pointer with 2:44 to play. Byrd, who was coming off a career-high 17-point effort two nights ago in a victory at Point Loma, was honored along with fellow senior Joey Schreiber in a pregame Senior Day ceremony.
"Justin and Joey transferred here because they wanted to be a part of a winning program and have an opportunity to go to an NCAA Tournament," Leslie said. "This is a new role for them this year, as seniors who are expected to contribute consistently, and they're really growing up and stepping up for the team. I was proud of Joey tonight for his rebounding, and Justin's been getting assists and defending the other team's best player."
Schreiber tallied 15 points and 10 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season, and Byrd finished with eight points along with a game-high four assists.
"This was a great win to go out with in my last game in this building," said Schreiber, who set the program's single-game scoring and three-point record just nine days earlier (48 points, 10 three-pointers). "You want to play your best basketball at the end of the season, and that's what we've been doing. We always we knew we were capable of this, but we just had to string a few of these types of games together. That game at their place really lit a fire in us, and now we're meshing and feeling good about each other."
Petar Kutlesic added 13 points and six rebounds, giving Azusa Pacific four players in double figures, and Selom Mawugbe tallied six blocked shots, coming just two away from the Cougars' single-game record, along with five rebounds.
Concordia never got closer than 25 points in the second half. After the first time, when a Josh Hauser layup made it 51-26, Azusa Pacific responded with a 13-4 run. Later in the half, a Tad Dufelmeier layup cut the lead to 64-39 with 8:04 to go, but the Cougars answered again, this time with a 15-6 run that extended the lead to 79-45 with 4:23 left.
"This last week, I think we got an idea of how good we can be," Leslie said. "We not only want to make it to the postseason, we want to be playing well going into the postseason. We've had some challenges that have really tested us, but through it all we've stayed committed to our foundation of the skills and work ethic in practice that translates into success in a game. As a result, we're really hitting our stride, and I'm happy for the team that all those unseen hours were able to culminate into a win like this. The way we played today against a team as good as Concordia really speaks to the quality of our play."
Dufelmeier was the only double-digit scorer for Concordia, as he finished with team-highs of 15 points, six rebounds, and three assists. Hauser was the second-highest scorer for the Eagles, finishing with eight points.
Azusa Pacific wraps up the regular season with three road games, starting with a Saturday, Feb. 18 visit to Fresno Pacific next week.
