AZUSA, Calif. – Point Loma Nazarene had its moments but stumbled at the end of both halves of their Golden State Athletic Conference game at Azusa Pacific Saturday night, losing 82-70. The Sea Lions fell to 12-10 overall, 8-5 in conference while the seventh-ranked Cougars improved to 20-3, 11-2 GSAC.

APU's Marshall Johnson sank a three pointer to start the game's scoring. It would be back-and-forth from that point on through the first 10 minutes of Saturday's tilt.

The Cougars went ahead by four until the Sea Lions evened the score at 6-6 after a Todd Campbell jumper. APU tallied the next six points before a James Hancock capped a PLNU run with a dunk that tied that game at 17-all.

A Hayden Lescault steal led to Marek Klassen jumper that put the Sea Lions in front for the first time on the next possession. The lead would change hands four more times over the following few minutes. Though the Sea Lions were playing well, they suddenly couldn't make a shot or hold onto the ball.

PLNU missed on their next nine tries, eight of which were threes, and had 10 turnovers through the seven minutes, 26 seconds heading into halftime.

The Sea Lions trailed 37-28 entering the second stanza. It could have been worse, however, if not for the fact that the Cougars weren't playing particularly well either.

Hancock put in PLNU's first bucket in eight minutes, setting off a run that saw the Sea Lions pull to within two points at 37-35. Azusa slowly regained control and went back in front by eight.

Loma refused to go away – and refused to give up on the long-range shot – catching APU at 49-49 after back-to-back treys by Klassen and Rhett Beal. A pair of Beal free throws at 11:25 had PLNU back in front.

The see-saw scoring resumed and leads came and went for both sides. Wil Bush's three knotted the game at 66-66 at the five-minute mark, setting up what should have been an exciting finish in the Felix Events Center. But, just as in the first half, the Sea Lions struggled to end the second. APU sealed the win by scoring the next 11 points to take an insurmountable 77-66 lead with 1:37 left.

The Sea Lions ended up shooting 43.3 percent from the field but were just 9-32 from beyond the arc and made 24 turnovers. The Cougars shot 49 percent from the field, were 4-14 from three point range and turned the ball over 21 times.

Beal led Point Loma in scoring with 19 points and nine rebounds, followed by 15 points from Klassen and eight from Hancock.

Marshall paced APU with 21 points. David Stafford finished with 16 points and Reggie Owens added 14 points in the win.

The Sea Lions host San Diego Christian on Tuesday. Tip-off at 7:30 pm.