Box Score

AZUSA, Calif. - The Sea Lions saved their best performance for last against Azusa Pacific. After the Cougars narrowly edged the Point Loma men's basketball team twice earlier this season, PLNU got it revenge with a wire-to-wire 86-70 victory over APU in the NCCAA West Regional final on Tuesday night (Mar. 4).

Junior Morgan scored a game-high 24 points and pulled in nine rebounds to lead the Sea Lions (17-11). Hayden Lescault also added 21 points on 7-of-9 shooting and Sam Okhotin hit four 3-pointers  to notch 12 points.

It was the defensive effort of the Sea Lions which set the tone in the game early and allowed them to hold a double-figure lead throughout most of the contest. PLNU scored the first five points of the game and went up 13-3 on a Junior Morgan layup less than seven minutes into the game. The Cougars hit just one of their first five shots and committed three turnovers in that span.

After an APU (17-10) basket and a pair of free throws the Cougars cut the Sea Lions' lead back to six (13-7) but PLNU answered with a 14-5 run and it took a 37-24 lead into the locker room.  Midway through the second half APU would make its run by scoring seven straight points to cut the lead to five (44-39) but once again PLNU answered the run. Lescault hit a 3 and Morgan made a jumper on consecutive possessions to extend the lead back to 10 (49-39).

Azusa would never again really threaten Point Loma's lead. It cut PLNU's advantage to nine at 58-49 with six minutes left but the Sea Lions then scored nine straight points (five from Marek Klassen and four from Morgan) to put the game out of reach at 67-48 with just over four minutes remaining.

Robert Sandoval led four Cougars in double-figures with 17 points. Troy Leaf also 15 and Jared Zoller came off the bench with 13.

This was the third time this season that Point Loma and Azusa Pacific had faced. The first two came in conference play where APU won the contest at Point Loma 75-74 on a Sharif Watson layup with 0.4 seconds remaining. Then in the game at APU went two overtimes with the Cougars edging the Sea Lions 87-84.

The biggest difference in the Sea Lions' earning the victory tonight was their ability to win the battle of the rebounds. They outboarded APU 34-28 tonight and outscored them 7-0 in second chance points. In their other two contests PLNU lost the rebounding battle and second-chance point categories in each contest.

Point Loma finished the game shooting 52 percent from the field (28-of-54) and 43 percent from long range (9-of-21). They also went 21-of-29 from the free throw line and turned the ball over just nine times.

PLNU will now head to the NCCAA National Championships in Winona Lake, Ind., on Mar. 19-22.