IRVINE, Calif. – In a hard-fought regular season finale that needed extra time, Azusa Pacific pulled out a  61-58 overtime victory at Concordia Saturday evening at the CU Arena in Irvine.  Kayla Shaw led the Cougars with 17 points.  She was joined in double figures by Molly Whitmore with 14 and Paige Uyehara with 13.

How It Happened:  Neither team was able to do much offensively in the early going, as the Cougars battled their way to a 15-13 lead at the end of the first quarter.  Points remained hard to come by for most of the night, as Azusa Pacific was kept off the scoreboard for the first three minutes of the second before Uyehara knocked down a jumper, the first of three consecutive makes by the Cougars that let them regain the lead.  Uyehara would make a three for the final points of the first half, giving the Cougars a 28-24 lead at intermission.

In the third quarter, Concordia briefly took the lead before Azusa Pacific seemed to take control of the game, going on a 12-1 run that gave the visitors a 40-32 lead before Concordia cut the deficit to five at the end of the quarter.  The Cougars again went on a short run early in the fourth, and when Shaw knocked down back-to-back threes, the lead reached double digits at 50-40 and would still be at ten with less than four minutes to play before a furious Concordia rally.  The Eagles scored the final ten points of regulation, tying the game with a minute to play before each team had two unsuccessful trips down the floor to end regulation.

Turning Point:  In the overtime, the Cougars shut Concordia down at the defensive end, allowing just a single made field goal in the extra five minutes.  Whitmore provided the winning basket, grabbing an offensive rebound and putting it back in with 1:24 remaining, and the Cougars would keep Concordia off the scoreboard over the final three minutes of overtime to seal the victory.

Inside the Numbers:  The game saw nine ties and nine lead changes.  The Cougars' defense held Concordia to just 1-12 from the field over the final 6:08 of the game.  Whitmore had a double-double with 11 rebounds to go with her 14 points.  Laura Pranger had four blocks to add to her PacWest career-record total.  Kelly Heimburger made all three of her field goal attempts off the bench, helping the Cougar reserves outscore their Eagle counterparts 8-2.  Since Concordia became a member of the PacWest in 2015, Azusa Pacific leads the series 13-3.