SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — With a pair of games left in the regular season, Azusa Pacific men's basketball pulled within one victory of a regular-season PacWest Conference Championship with a 74-59 win over Dominican Wednesday afternoon. It's the second win by a 15-point margin for the Cougars over the Penguins this season as they improve their record to 18-7 overall and 15-3 in conference action.
Ken West and Hayden Gray starred in the win, West was the leading scorer with 19 points while Gray stuffed the stat sheet with 10 points, seven assists, and four steals.
With the win, Azusa Pacific has a chance to win the PacWest regular-season title outright with a victory over Concordia in Irvine this upcoming Saturday, February 26th.
How it Happened: The Cougars started fast jumping out to a 14-5 lead just over six minutes into the half as Ben Avera knocked down two quick three-pointers to force a Penguin timeout.
Out of the timeout, Gray created multiple turnovers on the defensive end including two of his four first-half steals which resulted in easy baskets for the Cougars to stretch the lead to 24-10.
Up 29-20 with four minutes left in the half, Terrence Becvar's triple from the corner brought the advantage to double figures once again before Gray's steal and assist to Justin Hemsley gave Azusa Pacific a 34-20 advantage. To cap off the half, West knocked down his second triple of the game to give the Cougars their largest lead before the break making it 39-23. The Cougars would eventually take a 39-26 lead into halftime.
To begin the second half, Dominican brought the lead back to nine before the Cougars' work on the offensive glass kicked into gear. Nate Kleppe's hard work resulted in a layup before multiple offensive rebounds led to a Hemsley three that put Azusa Pacific back up 46-31.
With seven minutes left in the game, Gray got a jumper to fall in between a pair of layups from West including one coming from Gray which tied his season-high seventh assist. Leading by 16, a Becvar triple followed by Avera's third three-pointer of the game would give the Cougars their largest lead of the game with just three minutes remaining to seal the 74-59 win.
By the Numbers: Once again both teams turned the ball over plenty (16 for Dominican, 14 for Azusa Pacific) but it was the Cougars that did the most converting 20 points off turnovers to just 14 for the Penguins. Dominican shot 58% from beyond the arc but only attempted 12 triples (7-for-12) compared to Azusa Pacific's 11 made three-pointers (11-for-26, 42%). The Cougars held the Penguins to just 41.3% from the field as the Cougars defense stifled the Penguins in the first half (8-for-22, 36%). The Cougars continue to dominate other teams in bench points (27-6) and had more second chance points as well in this game (10-2). Azusa Pacific has now won 12 of its last 13 games all coming in PacWest action.
Up Next: The Cougars will travel to Irvine to take on Concordia this Saturday, February 26th at 7:30 p.m. To watch or follow along with live stats click here.
