AZUSA, Calif. — Azusa Pacific men's basketball defeated Hawai'i Pacific 98-53 Thursday evening on the back of a season-high 56 bench points to improve to 9-6 on the season and 6-2 in PacWest play. The Cougars have now won three in a row and are a perfect 8-0 at home this season.

Justin Hemsley only needed 16 minutes to lead the Cougars with 24 points, shooting a perfect 9-for-9 from the field which included a pair of threes. Sasha French and Terrence Becvar were the leaders off the bench, French recorded his first double-double this season with 11 points and 11 rebounds while Becvar had a season-high 16 points.

How it Happened: Trailing 5-2, Azusa Pacific put together its best scoring run of the game scoring 14 unanswered. The first four of the run came from Hemsley before a Ben Avera triple made it 9-5 in favor of the Cougars. Becvar then tallied the next seven straight points for Azusa Pacific with a three and a pair of layups that forced Hawai'i Pacific to call a timeout trailing 16-5.

The Sharks answered with a three-pointer before the Cougars went on another run to break the game wide open, this time it was a 16-2 run. Freshman Hayden Gray sparked the run with a nice spinning layup in the paint before the Azusa Pacific defense went to work. Hemsley knocked down his first three-pointer to capitalize off a Shark turnover before Ken West hit a pair of free throws to make it 23-7. After a Hawai'i Pacific basket, Becvar nailed back-to-back threes to add to his two previous to put his team up by 20 points with six minutes to play in the first half. Gray then capped off the run in style with an and-one layup off another Shark turnover to make it 32-9.

Hemsley then got in his offensive groove to close out the half knocking down all four of his shots in the final four minutes to up his point total to 18 on seven-of-seven shooting. The Sharks scored just 17 points in the half as the Cougars held them to 21.9% (7-for-32) from the field tallying the same amount of made field goals as Hemsley in the half.

With a 43-17 lead at the break, West came out hot scoring eight of his 10 total points in the first minute and a half to put Azusa Pacific ahead 51-20. Next, a 9-0 run that saw Allan McBride and Hemsley knock down a trio of triples put the Cougars up by 40 points before the first media timeout of the second half. 

French, who tallied five rebounds and no points in the first half, picked up another six boards to go along with his season-high 11 points all in the second-half. Others amongst the bench got in on the action as well in the second half as Dillon Waikle tallied a career-high nine points and two rebounds which included a pair of triples and an and-one. Rico Hopping saw a career-high 21 minutes, tallying five points and seven rebounds as well in the big win.

By the Numbers: As a team, the Cougars recorded season-highs in points (98), field goals made (35), 3-point field goals made (16), rebounds (47), and assists (21) tonight in the win. Azusa Pacific produced one of its best defensive efforts of the season as Hawai'i Pacific shot the lowest of any team from the field (28.8%) so far this season.

Up Next: The Cougars will face Academy of Art this Saturday, January 29th at 3:30 p.m. at the Felix Event Center. Unfortunately, there is no general admission attendance permitted to the Felix Event Center at this time, so fans can tune in to the game for free on the Azusa Pacific Athletics Network.

POSTGAME INTERVIEW: Dillon Waikle & Sasha French