AZUSA, Calif. — Azusa Pacific men's basketball defeated Chaminade 84-76 Monday evening despite a 15 minute pause towards the end of the game due to a power outage in the Azusa area. The Cougars have now won two in a row and improved to 8-6 on the season and 5-2 in PacWest play.

Freshman Hayden Gray led the way with an impressive all-around display demonstrated by his season-high 17 points and six steals. Terrence Becvar had all of his season-high 14 points in the first half and was 4-for-7 from beyond the arc in the game. Among others, Ken West was solid for the Cougars as he posted 15 points and seven rebounds.

How it Happened: Trailing 10-5 early in the first half, Becvar entered off the bench and turned the tide towards the Cougars. After drawing a charge, the senior guard came down and drilled a three-pointer before getting a floater on the next possession to tie the game at 10-apiece. The Silverswords scored to make it 12-10 but Becvar drew another charge, recorded a steal, and knocked down his second triple to put his team back in front 15-12. Just a few minutes later, Becvar fed a pass to Nate Kleppe for an easy dunk to increase the lead to 23-17 in favor of Azusa Pacific.

Chaminade's Zach McIntire got his team back within two with back-to-back buckets before a Silversword three-pointer would tie things up at 24-24 with seven minutes remaining in the half.

Turning Point: To close out the first half, the Azusa Pacific defense forced five turnovers during a 16-3 run to seize control of the game. After Becvar's third three and a Kleppe layup made it 29-24, Gray ran the pick-and-roll to perfection setting up an easy layup for French to increase the lead to seven. On the next Chaminade possession, French recorded a block and Gray got a steal but the Cougars couldn't capitilize offensively. Then, Becvar recorded a steal and missed his first triple of the game but Rico Hopping got the offensive board and gave it right back to Becvar who gave the Cougars their first 10-point lead, 34-24. Just seconds later, Gray recorded another steal this time going coast-to-coast for the layup before getting a tough shot to go in the lane on the next possession to put the lead up to 38-24. After a couple of free throws for each team, the Cougars would take a 40-27 lead into the break. 

In the second half, Azusa Pacific continued to create turnovers as West's steal set up a three-pointer by Justin Hemsley to open the half. West then got in on the act with a layup a few minutes later before Gray's steal and dunk gave the Cougars a 20-point lead. Out of the Chaminade timeout, Gray recorded another steal which set up Ben Avera's second triple of the half to make it 55-32.

Chaminade battled back the rest of the half as McIntire finished with a game-high 35 points but the Cougars answered with big plays by West and Hemsley to close out the game. West had 11 of his 15 in the second half while Hemsley had 11 of his 13 during the final 20 minutes as well.

Then with the Cougars up 82-76 with 12 seconds remaining, the unexpected happen as the entire gym's power and lights went out while Hemsley was at the free throw line. The game was paused for about 15 minutes due to the unexpected power outage before the final 12 seconds were played with the emergency lights on. After Hemsley made both free throws, the Silverswords just ran out the manual clock to end the game in what was one of the more strange endings you will ever see.

By the Numbers: The Cougars recorded a season-high 11 steals as a team with Gray racking up over half of them (6) and saw their opponents turn the ball over 17 times which is the most by any Cougar opponent this season. Azusa Pacific turned those 17 turnovers into 28 points which dominated the category (28-13), the Cougars also dominated bench points (29-10). The Cougars held Chaminade to just 10-for-28 (35%) from the field in the first-half and 3-for-12 (25%) from deep.

Up Next: Azusa Pacific will be back in action on Thursday, January 27th as they face Hawai'i Pacific with tip-off set for 7:30 p.m. at the Felix Event Center. There are no spectators allowed, but the game can be live streamed by following this link here.

POSTGAME INTERVIEW - Terrence Becvar & Hayden Gray