BELMONT, Calif. – Up North, the Cougars took care of business to open the road trip, as they secured a 61-57 win against Academy of Art on Saturday night. In the close game, nine different Cougars scored to give Azusa Pacific its ninth win of the season. The Cougars improved to a 9-3 overall record and are now 4-1 in conference play. 

Nate Kleppe and McKelary Robertson led the way with 10 points each. Kleppe and George Reidy had a team-leading seven rebounds and Hayden Gray led the team in steals with three.

How it Happened: The Cougars started the game off strong with the first points scored by Hayden Gray. From there, it was a hard-fought battle the entire contest. Around the 12:50 mark in the first half is when the Cougars started to pull ahead with an 8-point lead (14-6) on the Academy of Art.

The Urban Knights started to chip away, but the Cougars pushed back to another eight-point advantage around the halfway mark of the first half. A few minutes later, Justin Hemsley knocked down a fast-break three-pointer to give the team their largest lead of the half at 23-12. 

Across the next six minutes, the Urban Knights held the Cougars scoreless and chipped away at the deficit, eventually taking a 28-25 lead with 1:30 to go in the half. 

Ken West knocked down a triple to tie the game back up (28-28), followed by a layup by Trevan Martin to return the lead to Azusa Pacific (30-28). Within the last 30 seconds of the half, the Urban Knights scored another field goal to tie the game at 30-30 at the break.

The second half started off strong with a triple from Reidy, who kicked off an 11-0 run, which included back-to-back layups from Gray, a jumper by Reidy, and a dunk from Kleppe within the first four minutes. Kleppe's dunk made it 41-30 in favor of the Cougars.

Once again, the Cougars were unable to keep a hold of the lead and the Urban Knights fought back. Across the next seven minutes, the Urban Knights would go on to score 15 points while holding the Cougars to only four point, and the home team regained a 46-45 lead.

Down by one point with 8:40 on the clock, West knocked down a clutch three-pointer to give the Cougars the lead for the next seven minutes. Things got close for the last time as the Knights tied it up at 57 with 1:28 left in the game. 

Kleppe and Gray both knocked down their set of free throws as the Knights were forced to foul and Azusa Pacific finished the game with a 61-57 win. 

By the Numbers: A huge key for the Cougars was that they forced the Urban Knights into 21 turnovers, which they were able to convert into 24 points off of turnovers. Between four different players, the Cougars also knocked down eight triples, led by Hemsley and West with three each. 

The Cougars were 22-for-61 (36%) from the field goal range and 8-for-27 (29%) from behind the arc. 

Up Next: Azusa Pacific (9-3, 4-1 PacWest) will remain in Northern California, asit takes on Dominican in San Rafael on Monday. Game time is expected to be at 3:00pm. Live stats and video can be viewed HERE.