CHICO, California— After taking a loss in their opening game of the season, Azusa Pacific bounced back the next day with a 67-57 win over Cal Poly Pomona in Game 2 of the CCAA/PacWest/GNAC Challenge.
Leading the team was Bryce Sloan who tallied 21 points while Ethan Speaker had 11 points and George Reidy had 10 points to round out double-digit scoring. Speaker, Reidy, and Nate Kleppe grabbed a team-high 6 rebounds each.
How It Happened: Although the Broncos scored the first bucket of the game, the Cougars fired back as Speaker shot the first triple followed by another from Ken West then another from George Reidy to give them a 9-2 lead to start.
Then, with 12:24 on the clock in the first half, the Cougars went on a 10-2 run over the next four minutes to maintain a ten-point advantage. A few minutes later, the Broncos began to chip into the Cougars' lead with a seven-point run of their own but that was cut short with a layup from Ken West to put the Cougars up 23-27 with 4:26 left in the half.
The Cougars went on to score two free throws and a three-pointer from Reidy to give them an eight-point lead with 2:30 left. Cal Poly answered with three free throws but Ken West got the final laugh of the half with a jump shot in the final seconds sending the Cougars into the locker room up 26-34.
The Broncos once again scored first to start the second half but were met by a triple from Nate Kleppe to keep the Cougars up by nine. Azusa Pacific's lead teetered between four to nine points over the whole first 12 minutes of the half before Bryce Sloan knocked down a three-pointer to put the Cougars up by 12.
Over the next few scoring drives, the Cougars would piece together enough points to lead at one point by 15 with 4:10 left to play. Once again, the Broncos would attempt to cut into their deficit by going on a six-point run within the last few minutes of the game but it was not enough as the Cougars secured their double-digit lead with two free throws by Bryce Sloan.
By The Numbers: The Cougars dominated from behind the arc with nine total three-pointers across six different players while the Broncos had only four triples. Although Cal Poly Pomona led in free throw attempts shooting 17-for-29 (58.6%), the Cougars shot 14-for-19 with a 73.7% from the line. The Broncos did however dominate in the paint scoring 28 of their 57 total points within the key.
Up Next: The Cougars will travel to Seattle, Washington next weekend to kick off the PacWest/GNAC Challenge hosted by Seattle Pacific. The first game will take place at 7:15 pm on Friday, November 17th against the hosts while Game 2 will be at 5:00 pm the next day versus Western Washington.
