After blowing out the Cal State Dominguez Hills Toros by 19 points the previous night, the Azusa Pacific men’s basketball team saw the other side of a blowout Saturday, falling to the Cal Poly Pomona Broncos 76-56 in the last game of the Cougar Classic.
Despite matching point totals between the two teams in the second half, defense, rebounding and field-goal percentage were what killed the Cougars. They were outrebounded 40-23 and outshot, hitting 36.8 percent compared to the Broncos’ 56 percent. The Cougars had fewer defensive rebounds than offensive rebounds, grabbing a total of 13 offensive boards and 10 defensive boards. While Cal Poly made sure APU’s possessions were one-and-done, the Cougars were not boxing out well, leading to 17 second-chance points for the Broncos.
“We played with no sense of toughness or urgency to start the game on the defensive side of the ball,” head coach Justin Leslie said. “They got whatever they wanted and when they missed it, they got it [back]. I think at halftime, they had three possessions where they missed and they didn’t get the rebound. You can’t win that way.”
The Cougars’ leading scorer was junior guard Troy Leaf, scoring 18 points and dishing out six assists. He struggled finding efficiency in his decisions, going 6-for-16 from the field and committing three turnovers. Junior guard Robert Sandoval scored 14 points, dealt four dimes and snatched three steals, but shot 5-of-14 from the field and turned the ball over five times.
Senior forward Tyler Monroe tallied 10 points off 5-of-8 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds. According to Leslie, the performance of their three captains along with the bench players needed to be better in order to be able to compete with Cal Poly.
“Against this, we needed our backcourt on offense to be strong. They weren’t. Robert [Sandoval] and Troy [Leaf] were not good tonight,” Leslie said. “They didn’t make good decisions, they both turned the ball over far too many times, and their shot selection wasn’t good. Tyler, we need more out of him. He’s better than he played tonight. I think probably more than anything [for him] was focus to start the game. He finished stronger, but it wasn’t just him. Our bench was not prepared [either].”
Out of all the things that went wrong for the Cougars, Leslie’s No. 1 issue with how they played was their defensive effort.
“Our advantage coming into this game was the fact that we could defend … We didn’t defend at all. That was our biggest shortcoming tonight,” Leslie said.
The Cougars started the game by allowing nine straight points to the Broncos in the first four minutes. These four minutes were reflective of the Cougars’ performance all game, not ever finding a lead and being down by double-digits for the remainder of the game after going down 17-7 with 12:15 to play in the first half. They scored only 18 points in the first half compared to the Broncos’ 38.
Looking to put this performance behind them, the Cougars will play their next game versus longtime rivals Biola on Saturday, Nov. 23 at the Felix Event Center. Game time is set for 7:30 p.m.