It was billed as the NAIA Game of the Week and it didn't disappoint - at least not the fans in APU's Felix Event Center. The NAIA No. 5-ranked Sea Lions surrendered a 13-point lead and lost in overtime to ninth-ranked Azusa Pacific 81-80.
PLNU drops to 21-3 overall and more importantly are now 13-3 in the Golden State Athletic Conference. The Cougars improved to 21-4, 14-1 GSAC, putting them all alone in first place. A win would have pulled the Sea Lions even with APU and PLNU would have held the tie-breaker; but instead the Green and Gold find themselves looking up at the Cougars and the Vanguard Lions with little chance of a conference title. The Sea Lions, who lost to Vanguard last week, could also find themselves slip below APU in the national rankings.
Saturday's game looked like it might belong to the Sea Lions, the only GSAC team to beat APU thus far. PLNU held a 27-24 lead but went on a 14-4 run midway into the first half to go ahead by 13 points. At intermission it was Point Loma in front 43-32.
An APU layup and a three-pointer by Briana Hall closed the gap to just six when play resumed. Colleen Planeta dropped in a jumper and PJ Hanson followed with a trey to push PLNU's lead back to nine at 16:47. The Sea Lion lead vanished, however, as the Cougars scored the next 10 points.
Amanda Franz stopped the bleeding with a three-pointer and followed an APU turnover with another from beyond the arc to put PLNU up 54-49. But Kristie Hala'ufia made a layup and CJ Hill sank a trey to even the score yet again.
The Sea Lions regained momentum and went back up by six until Hala'ufia made a jumper. Both offenses stalled with neither side was able to score for more than two and a half minutes. Alex Moore-Porter make a layup for APU to half the deficit at 2:12 but Liah Ector made a pair of free throws to put PLNU in front 70-66. Hall, Moore-Porter and Michelle Byrd made buckets on consecutive APU possessions while the Sea Lions missed on both of their attempts.
Point Loma had a chance to even the score, but missed a free-throw on a one-and-one. Ineffectiveness at the stripe (9-for-18) hurt the Sea Lions all night.
Following Hala'ufia's last bucket with 45 second left in the second half, the Sea Lions missed their third attempt in a row but Planeta grabbed the offensive rebound and put the ball back in, tying the score at 72 with 29 seconds to go. The Cougars turned the ball over at the 13 second mark but PLNU was unable to get a shot off, the game going to overtime.
Franz scored the first points of OT. Hall made two free throws to tie the game again. PLNU went back ahead by two on an Ector layup but Hala'ufia returned the favor with a jumper. Ector made another layup with 29 seconds left in overtime making the score PLNU 80, APU 78. But Moore-Porter would make the biggest shot of the night, sinking a three-pointer with seven ticks on the clock. The Sea Lions then sealed their fate with a turnover.
"It was a great battle," said PLNU assistant coach Alan Nakamura. "It was two really good teams and it could have gone either way in the first half, the second half and in overtime. Congratulations to APU, they deserved to win. We [PLNU] have great character and are united. We will learn from this and get better."
PLNU shot 48 percent to 44 percent from the Cougars. The Sea Lions also made seven threes to just three from APU. The Cougars had huge advantages in rebounds (53-32) and free throws (18-9).
Planeta and Ector carried the PLNU offense, scoring 26 and 21 points, respectively. Ector pulled in 13 boards. Kaitlyn Trotter contributed 12 points and six boards with Franz scoring 11 points.
Hala'ufia scored 23 points and had 13 rebounds to lead APU. Moore-Porter added 21 points with Hall and Hill contributing 17 and 12.
The Sea Lions return home on Tuesday when they host Concordia at 5:30 pm.
