Box Score (SAN DIEGO) PLNU Women's Basketball's comeback attempt came just short against Azusa Pacific on Wednesday night, as the Cougars pulled away late in the second half to defeat the Sea Lions by a final score of 67-57 inside Golden Gym.
"They're very strong and talented," Head Coach
Charity Elliott said of APU. "We knew that we had to be ready to go and I couldn't be any more proud of the effort, the work and the togetherness we showed tonight."
APU took a commanding 26-12 lead after the first quarter, but the Sea Lions outscored the Cougars by five in the second period to make it a nine-point game at the half.
PLNU carried that momentum into the second half, with
Haylee Saurette scoring 11 of PLNU's first 15 points after halftime to get the Sea Lions to within two.
"They (APU) came out and hit every single shot and we could have folded," Elliott said. "We could have just hung our heads but we didn't. We battled back and it was a great game."
Shortly after, the Cougars went on a 7-0 run of its own before
Ellie Turk's 3-point play to end the third quarter cut Point Loma's deficit to sixth entering the final period.
APU then started the fourth by hitting back-to-back triples to go back up by double digits.
Turk then hit consecutive floaters in the lane to get PLNU back to within six with six minutes left, but that was as close as the Sea Lions would get, with the Cougars winning by a final margin of 10 to give PLNU its first home loss in PacWest play.
Turk led Point Loma with 17 points, while Saurette flirted with a double-double with her 16 points and eight rebounds.
"I thought these two, I mean honestly I could go through every single person, came in and did their job tonight," Elliott said of Turk and Saurette. "I thought these two were huge sparks at different times.
"Haylee's defense tonight was amazing, then she just went on a spurt where I just wanted to keep getting her the ball. Ellie was in attack mode for 40 minutes. She made great decisions tonight."
Point Loma (8-10 overall, 6-4 PacWest) now turns its attention to playing Concordia, who is tied-for-first in the conference standings with APU, on Saturday in Irvine.
Wednesday's competitive loss to the West Region's fourth-ranked team gave PLNU confidence going forward into the second half of its PacWest season.
"Even a month ago, I think if we'd been punched that hard in the first quarter like we were, I don't know that we would have responded the way that we did tonight," Elliott said. "We still have a lot of basketball left to play and I think that's what's exciting. We're still evolving, we're still growing.
"I think games like tonight, even though we didn't win, we all walked out of there feeling like we know what we can do. This was a big step for us as far as battling, fighting and staying together. We want to take this and use it to just keep moving forward."
Tip-off on Saturday is scheduled for 5 p.m.
