SAN FRANCISCO -- Azusa Pacific got the victory it needed to clinch its place in the Pacific West Conference Tournament, picking up a 77-67 victory over Academy of Art to finish the regular season with six wins in its final seven games.
The late-season push propelled the Cougars into the postseason as the No. 5-seed in the PacWest Tournament, which begins on Thursday, March 2, at Concordia University in Irvine. With the win, Azusa Pacific finished the regular season with a 16-14 overall record and finished 11-9 in PacWest play against the league's toughest conference schedule.
Five Cougars scored in double figures, led by Corey Langerveld's 17-point effort, and Will Ferris provided a spark off the bench with 13 points, five rebounds, and three assists.
Azusa Pacific built a double-digit first-half lead, using a five-minute stretch late in the half to put together a 15-3 run, which turned a one-point game into a comfortable 13-point margin with less than three minutes left in the half. Langerveld, Ferris, and Ben Taufahema each hit three-pointers in the run, and the Cougars went into halftime with a 44-32 edge.
In another five-minute stretch early in the second half, Azusa Pacific went on a 14-2 run, expanding the lead to 24 points on a Justin Byrd layup which gave the Cougars their largest lead of the game at 62-38 with 12:49 to play. It took Academy of Art over 10 minutes to cut the lead to 10 points, but the Urban Knights never got any closer after trimming the margin to 71-61 with 2:33 left in the game.
Academy of Art's leading scorer and rebounder was Chris Salas with 18 points and 12 rebounds, but no other starter for the Urban Knights reached double figures in scoring. As a team, Academy of Art shot just 13 percent (2-for-16) from three-point range, although the Urban Knights grabbed 16 offensive rebounds which led to 11 second-chance points.
Petar Kutlesic tallied 12 points and nine rebounds, and Connor Peterson contributed 12 points, three assists, and a career-high five steals. Byrd also finished in double figures, scoring 11 points to go with five rebounds and a pair of steals. Selom Mawugbe blocked two shots, his eighth PacWest game with at least two blocks, and he pulled down a season-high eight rebounds.
