AZUSA, Calif.-- Azusa Pacific punched its ticket to the PacWest Championship Tournament tonight after a 61-54 win over Concordia. After the win on Senior Night, the Cougars bounced back to improve to 15-7 overall and 12-3 in Conference, which puts them back atop the PacWest standings after Point Loma's win over Biola. The Cougars finished with an 11-1 record at home which is the best mark (by winning percentage) since the 2014-15 season when they were undefeated in the Felix Event Center.
Prior to the game, the West Region rankings were announced and Azusa Pacific claimed a respectable No. 8 spot on the list along with two other PacWest teams, Point Loma (No. 7) and Biola (No. 9). However, the rankings do not take into account the results of Monday's games.
The team's leading scorer, Ken West, scored 20 points, shooting 6-for-9 from the FG range, 3-for-5 from behind the rainbow, and 5-for-6 from the charity stripe. He also grabbed 3 rebounds and 2 steals.
Celebrating Senior Night in proper fashion, Trevon Ary-Turner had a career-high 10 points shooting 4-for-4 from the field goal range including two triples. He also collected career-high accolades in rebounds (5), and steals (2).
Playing in his 100th game for the Cougars, Terrence Becvar collected 7 points and 5 rebounds including a triple to put him at 124 made three point shots in his career so far. Another Senior, Sasha French, also put up 8 points including his first defensive block of the season.
How it Happened: The teams went back and forth from the beginning after Concordia took a short but quick lead to start the half. Four minutes into the game, a triple from West gave the Cougars the lead, which they would keep for the rest of the half.
The Cougars went on to shoot 7-for-14 from the three-point line between Allan McBride, Becvar, Ben Avera, and two each from Ary-Turner and West to give them a ten-point lead going into halftime.
Fresh out of halftime, Concordia began to chip away at the Cougars' lead and were able to make the game within a point or tie the game multiple times. However, Azusa Pacific never gave up their lead the whole second half.
Barely under the eight minute mark and tied at 47, Becvar lunged across the floor for a crucial defensive rebound leading to a deep three from West to give the team the three-point lead. After forcing two major turnovers from Concordia in crunch time, the Cougars scored the last five points of the game to secure the 7-point advantage.
By the Numbers: Shooting 21-for-59 from the field goal range, the Cougars also counted eight triples against the Eagles while holding the visitors to only 5-for-24 from the three point line. They also were able to secure 11-for-12 points (92%) from the charity stripe.
28 of the team's 61 points came from the bench and the Cougars were able to score 21 points off Concordia's 16 turnovers. They also grabbed a total of 39 rebounds, 6 of which came from Nate Kleppe, who has the second highest total rebounds so far (111) behind West with 116 rebounds.
Up Next: Azusa Pacific, currently sitting atop of PacWest rankings, will battle against Biola, currently ranked third, on Saturday, February 19th. Tip-off will take place at 7:30pm.
POSTGAME INTERVIEW: Trevon Ary-Turner & Terrence Becvar
