AZUSA, Calif. – Records are made to be broken and the Azusa Pacific women's basketball team broke three on Saturday night.
The 19th ranked Cougars broke a 41-year old school record for most points in a game with a 125-78 win against Dominican. In the process the squad also set the PacWest conference record for most points in a game.
Previously the Azusa Pacific record was 120 set on Jan. 25, 1977 in a game against Chapman. California Baptist held the league record after scoring 121 last season.
Furthermore the point output tied Indiana (Penn.) for the sixth most points scored in an NCAA Division II women's basketball game this season.
HOW IT HAPPENED: A handful of things happened during the game that contributed to the record setting evening. The Cougars set season highs for assists (28), steals (25) and shooting percentage (53.8) while tying a season high with 10 blocked shots.
Most importantly, however, was the fact the Cougars made 49 field goal which also set the school record. The 2005-06 squad hit 46 in a game against Olivet Nazarene.
Azusa Pacific had their highest scoring quarter of the season when they notched a 35-point effort in the second frame. They nearly bypassed that number by scoring 34 in the third quarter.
QUOTABLE: "Dominican is a good team and we were making the game up tempo, as we usually do, and tonight we were finding each other and making shots," head coach T.J. Hardeman said. "Tonight we were focusing on our trapping defense and we did a great job of converting those turnovers into points."
EVERYONE IS SCORING: The Cougars put six different players into double figures led by Zoe March's career high 25-point performance. Rachel Bozlee came off the bench to hit eight of her 11 field goals (6-for-9 3FG) en route to a 24-point evening. Gabrielle Kaiser was effective down low by scoring 18 points in just 13 minutes. Abbigail Goodsell (15), Gina Henderson (11) and Savanna Hanson (10) rounded out the 10-plus point scorers for the home team.
All told Azusa Pacific had 11 different players score at least two points.
INSIDE THE BOXSCORE
- The Cougars shot at least 50 percent from the floor and made at least 11 field goals in every quarter
- March and Goodsell both dished out a team high seven assists
- Azusa Pacific's 13 made three pointers were the most since the calendar turned to 2018
- Azusa Pacific held huge advantages in specialty stats for points off turnovers (48-17), points in the paint (62-38) and fast break points (26-2)
PACWEST IMPLICATIONS: The win lifts the Cougars record to 23-3 overall and 14-2 in league games. The remain one-game behind Hawai'i Pacific in the loss column. The victory assures Azusa Pacific of no worse than the No. 2 seed for the PacWest tournament and a first-round bye for the six-team event the first week of March.
UP NEXT: The Cougars host Chaminade on Monday at 5:30 p.m. for the second of their three-game home stretch to close out home games.
