AZUSA, Calif. – The Azusa Pacific Cougars ran their winning streak to three, holding off a game Concordia squad 67-61 Saturday evening at the Felix Event Center.  Mandrell Worthy led the way, leading all scorers in the game with a career-high 26 points.  Brennan Rymer added 12 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists, while Ben Avera also finished in double figures with 11.

How It Happened – Points were at a premium in a defensive-minded struggle, as the Cougars slowly built a ten-point advantage just past the midway point of the first half at 18-8.  The Cougars' first 12 points of the evening all occurred in the paint, but the Eagles would slowly chip away at the deficit, getting within a point a couple of times before a Worthy layup gave the Cougars a 32-29 lead at intermission.  Ben Avera made back-to-back threes early in the second half to put the home team up by nine, but the Eagles fought back and tied the game twice, though they would never take the lead themselves.

Turning Point – Concordia had narrowed the lead to two and had the ball with less than 90 seconds to go and no timeouts.  The Cougar defense stiffened, forcing a critical shot clock violation with 55 seconds remaining.  On the ensuing possession, Worthy knocked down a mid-range jumper, putting Azusa Pacific ahead 63-59.  Terrence Becvar came up with a steal at the defensive end, and by the time the Eagles finally scored again, there were only five seconds remaining, and they called a timeout they didn't have, which resulted in a technical foul.  Worthy knocked down both free throws, then made two more to close out the scoring, winding up with 18 points in the second half.

By the Numbers – Worthy ended up making all eight of his free throws for the game, as the Cougars made 17-19 as a team at the charity stripe, which proved the difference in a game where Concordia was just 4-11 at the line themselves.  Ken West added 9 points and 8 rebounds, as the Cougars came up with 43 rebounds to the Eagles' 38.  Concordia was able to keep pace with the Cougars most of the night by converting 15 offensive rebounds into 19 second-chance points.  The Cougars' defense held Concordia to 40% shooting from the field, coming up with 6 blocked shots on the evening.

Up Next -- The Cougars (3-1) are scheduled to play a back-to-back next weekend against Point Loma (3-0, ranked 10^th in last week's D2SIDA poll), with the first game scheduled to be at the Felix Event Center on Friday at 4:30 p.m.