Senior forward Bert Hall aggressively attacks the basket for two of many points in the paint in the win over Hawai’i Pacific on Saturday, Feb. 15. Photo credit: Kimberly Smith
Azusa Pacific men’s basketball defeated Hawai’i Pacific 81-74 in a conference matchup at home Saturday night.
In their last meeting two weeks ago in Hawaii, the Sea Warriors out-rebounded the Cougars by a significant margin (43-24). Azusa Pacific, however, answered with its first positive rebounding margin (38-32) since the victory over current PacWest leader California Baptist on Friday, Jan. 21.
The Cougars gathered 12 offensive rebounds Saturday, opening up second-chance scoring opportunities.
“We had numerous plays by Andy Jones, Tyler Monroe, Bert Hall and Sharif [Watson] where there were second-effort points down there. It’s easy to just quit when a shot goes up, but they kept battling and kept battling. We probably got about an extra five or six possessions in the game that led to points. We had 15 second-chance points,” head coach Justin Leslie said. “We get 15 second-chance points, that’s going to get us rolling.”
Senior forward Bert Hall led Azusa Pacific’s positive margin with eight rebounds, additionally contributing to the Cougars’ defensive performance, which held the Sea Warriors to a 37.5 shooting percentage.
“Our first halves defensively these last two home games have been really solid,” Leslie said. “We really frustrated them early on. Any time a team doesn’t score, their effort on defense after that isn’t nearly as good, so we were able to take advantage of that offensively.”
The Cougars entered halftime with a double-digit lead, which they maintained steadily until the last minutes of the game.
With 58 seconds to play, the Sea Warriors made the once 16-point deficit a four-point game with a three-point play from junior guard Justin Long. After a series of fouls from both teams, Azusa Pacific pulled away with two pairs of converted free-throw attempts from junior guards Troy Leaf and Robert Sandoval.
With 37 second-half fouls combining for 52 free-throw attempts,15 of the final 17 points of the game were earned at the charity stripe.
Four Cougars ended the night in double-digit scoring, led by Leaf with 19 points and four assists. Senior forward Tyler Monroe posted a 14-point game, followed by Sandoval with 12 points and five assists. Sophomore forward Sharif Watson recorded 10 points on the night, including an early first-half dunk.
“You look at the last two games, Troy and Robert have combined for 24 assists. Tyler and Sharif’s first baskets were alley-oop dunks. It’s pretty easy to get yourself rolling when your first catch is an alley-oop dunk,” Leslie said. “It’s been a combination of our guards making better decisions and our post finishing, being patient and recognizing where their moves are.”