AZUSA, Calif. -- Petar Kutlesic and Connor Peterson combined for 58 points and led an early onslaught from which No. 6-ranked Hawai'i Pacific could never recover, as Azusa Pacific handed the Pacific West Conference-leading Sharks their first road defeat of the season, 92-82.
Barely five minutes into the game, Kutlesic had already scored 16 of his game-high 31 points, hitting six of his first seven attempts including four three-pointers to put Hawai'i Pacific on its heels, and Peterson added a three-pointer in the opening outburst before scoring 20 of his 27 in the second half to finish off the Sharks.
"Petar got into a rhythm early and put them in a tough spot defensively, and from there we were able to move them and put them on their heels," Azusa Pacific head coach Justin Leslie said. "They never found their defensive rhythm against us, and we competed throughout to make clutch plays at both ends of the floor."
With the win, Azusa Pacific becomes the only PacWest team to successfully defend its home court against HPU, and the Cougars improve to 12-13 overall and 7-8 in conference play. Hawai'i Pacific, which won the first two games of a three-game, five-day mainland road trip, falls to 21-2 overall while dropping into a three-way tie for the PacWest lead with a 13-2 conference mark.
"I think we've shown that we're capable of playing with anyone this year, but we just haven't consistently made those clutch plays to get separation when we've needed it," Leslie said. "It's just a matter of buy-in, belief, and trust that if we stick to the process, it's going to turn out well. There was a tremendous effort that went into practices leading into both of these last two games, and I've seen it carry out onto the court. If we can keep that up, it gives us a shot to have some success moving forward."
The only time the clock stopped in the first seven minutes of the game was when the Sharks turned the ball over after a defensive rebound just over a minute into the game. Kutlesic, who muscled inside for a layup on the opening possession, capitalized on the turnover with a short jumper before scoring his next 12 points behind the three-point line. Connor Looney kept HPU close with three treys of his own to match Kutlesic.
However, the frenetic pace took its toll on the road-weary Sharks, who finally burned a timeout with 12:49 left in the first half after Kutlesic scored his 18th point on another short jumper, which was part of a 15-2 run over a seven-minute stretch following Looney's third three-pointer. Will Ferris closed out the run with a three-pointer that gave Azusa Pacific its largest lead of the game, 34-20, before Looney scored a fast-break layup with 7:07 left in the half to pull the Sharks out of their scoring drought.
Joey Schreiber, who scored a school-record 48 points on another school-record 10 three-pointers last week against Hawai'i Hilo, knocked down his second trey of the game in the final minute of the first half to send Azusa Pacific into halftime with a 45-36 lead.
Kutlesic and Peterson each hit three-pointers in the first 90 seconds of the second half to answer five quick points from Chauncey Orr, and the Cougars maintained a lead of at least seven points until HPU pulled within six, 79-73, on a Spencer Vering three with 2:55 left. Peterson answered with a pair of free throws, and Azusa Pacific closed out the game by hitting 8-of-10 from the line in the final 1:06.
"We have a choice," Leslie said. "We can hope for somebody to get hot and carry us every game, or we can go out there and make it happen for ourselves. We have a lot of players who can put the ball into the basket, but there's a whole lot more to the game than that. We can start having some confidence that we're good enough to do that, and that's what we have to do moving forward. If we're playing well and working hard together like we did tonight, we're a tough team to play on a short turnaround."
Kutlesic finished with a 31-point, 11-rebound double-double, and Peterson's balanced performance included five rebounds, six assists, and three steals to go with his career-high 27-point effort. Ferris contributed 12 points off the bench, while Schreiber added 10. The Cougars shot 51 percent (30-for-59) from the field and hit 13-of-29 (45 percent) three-pointers.
Hawai'i Pacific went cold from long range in the second half, hitting just 4-of-17 threes after going 5-for-11 from beyond the arc in the first half. Looney and Orr led the Sharks with 25 points each, and Jordan Martin added 10 points and 10 rebounds for HPU.
Azusa Pacific visits Point Loma on Thursday, Feb. 9, before hosting Concordia on Saturday, Feb. 11 to wrap up a stretch of six games in a 15-day stretch.
