SAN DIEGO, Calif. — On Wednesday night, the Azusa Pacific Women's Basketball team secured their second win of the new year against Point Loma by defeating the Sea Lions 67-57. They now stand at 8-1 in Conference play and 13-3 overall with their third straight win.
After scoring her 1,000th career point in her previous game against Holy Names, Molly Whitmore led the charge with 18 points and grabbed 7 rebounds.
Kelly Heimburger contributed with 12 points of her own and 4 blocks followed by Amayah Kirkman who rounded out the double-digit scoring with 11 points and two steals.
How it Happened: Within the first 20 seconds of the game, Tylee Manuel set the tone with the first score of the game followed by back-to-back layups by Molly Whitmore to give the Cougars a 6-2 lead to start the game.
Across the first quarter, Azusa Pacific put together four three-pointers between Paige Uyehara, Alex Lowden, Heimburger, and Kirkman to score 26 points in the first quarter alone while also holding the Sea Lions to only 12 points.
With the 14-point lead heading into the second quarter, the Sea Lions started to counter and the Cougars were having trouble responding. Manuel had another early basket in the first minute of the game but between another triple from Uyehara, a free throw from Heimburger, and a layup from Lowden, the Cougars were only able to score 8 points against the Sea Lion's 13 points in the second quarter.
However, the Cougars were still able to head into the locker room with a nine-point lead as the score was 34-25 headed into the second half of the game.
Once again, Manuel scored the first points of the third quarter to give the Cougars an 11-point lead, then Point Loma put up a nine-point run to cut the deficit to only two points with 5:42 left in the quarter. Kirkman responded with two free throws to make the score 44-40 which helped the Cougars to a 7-2 run across the next five minutes. Point Loma would go on to score three points to end the quarter still down 45-51.
Turning Point: In the final quarter of the game, Lauren Jones scored her 13th triple of the season within the first 12 seconds. Kirkman followed suit with a three-pointer of her own followed by a layup from Uyehara to give the Cougars a strong 12-point lead again within the first minute and a half. Once again the Sea lions would start to chip away at the Cougars' advantage getting it within 6 points with six minutes left of the game. But from there, the Cougars held Point Loma to two free throws for the rest of the game.
Whitmore would go on to score the last six points of the game for the Cougars and help the team finish out with a 67-57 win while holding the lead the entire game.
By the Numbers: The Cougars held the lead for the entirety of the game, while scoring 17 points off Point Loma's 17 turnovers. Azusa Pacific put together eight three-pointers and were 28-57 (49.1%) from field goal range.
Up Next: The Cougars will travel to Hawaii next to face off against Hawaii Hilo, Hawaii Pacific, and Chaminade. Their first game will take place on Monday against Hawai'i Hilo with a tip-off scheduled for 5:00 p.m. (HT) and 7:00 p.m. (PT). You can watch the livestream HERE.
