Skip To Main Content

Azusa Pacific University Athletics

The Online Home of the Azusa Pacific Cougars
Aisien, Tobias2 - 2025
Ken Williams
53
Nobel M-506569 0-8
89
Winner Azusa Pacific M-30146 6-6,1-3 PacWest
Nobel M-506569
0-8
53
Final
89
Azusa Pacific M-30146
6-6,1-3 PacWest
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Nobel M-506569 27 26 53
Azusa Pacific M-30146 40 49 89

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

Dashing Through the Defense

Cougars roll over Nobel

AZUSA, Calif. – There will be no grinch for Azusa Pacific's Christmas this year. 

The Cougars followed Tuesday's road upset of Cal State San Bernardino with tonight's 89-53 nonconference home victory over Nobel University in the Felix Event Center.  And not that tonight's win over first-year program Nobel wasn't expected – the score clearly indicates that – but the manner by which APU claimed this easy win is what certainly adds to the cheer.

Freshman Tobias Aisien came off the bench to score a career-high 18 points, while Chris Gayles Jr. added a season-high 15, and seldom-used Josh Hardeman tallied 10 points in just 11 minutes of play.  In fact, 11 of the 12 Cougars able to play scored, as every Cougar left the Felix with a sense of contribution heading into a 13-day layoff for the Christmas.

Azusa Pacific raced out to a commanding 27-8 lead after Charlie Gehler, who was coming off a monster 26-point performance in the San Bernardino win, drained 3 consecutive treys in less than 90 seconds, continuing his sparkle from the prior game, on his way to 11 points in 17 minutes of play.

However, as has been the case frequently this season, the Cougars went dead in the water for a short period of time and missed 7 of their next 9 shots, including all 5 from the 3-point line, allowing Nobel to rally to within 8 at 35-27.  APU stemmed the rush, settling for a 40-27 lead at the break.

Gayles scored 7 straight – 5 in a row to end the first half before nailing the first shot of the second half, igniting a 17-4 Cougar run that put APU up 54-31.  The Cougars took advantage of 22 Knight turnovers, which turned the game into a lot of coast-to-coast dribble drives to the basket, and when Shant Chenorhavorian picked Jovan Young and raced back in the opposite direction for a lay-up, the Cougars had their first of several 30-point leads at 63-33 with 11 minutes left in the game.

Hardeman, who appeared in just 4 of the Cougars' 33 games last year and hadn't seen the floor yet this year, entered the contest at that point and made sure APU kept it's 30-point margin by drilling his first 3 shots of the season, including a pair of treys, finishing with 10 points.

Aisien showed off his athleticism throughout the second half, scoring from a variety of spots on the floor, nailing 1 trey, converting several drives through the paint, and drilling short pull-up jump shots.  In the end, he shined a light on what his future could look like as the Cougars move into the new calendar year and the teeth of the PacWest Conference schedule.

With the win, the Cougars improve to 6-6 overall, hopefully wiping away the bad taste of a 3-game conference losing streak heading into this week's play.  Azusa Pacific returns to action Thursday, Jan. 2, when it hosts surprising PacWest frontrunner Jessup (6-3 overall, 3-0 PacWest) at 7:30 p.m.

Nobel, which was paced by Sparsh Kadayan's 17 points off the bench, falls to 1-11 in its inaugural season of intercollegiate basketball.
 
Print Friendly Version