MEN’S BASKETBALL
Azusa Pacific enters the PacWest Men’s Basketball Championship tournament having earned the No. 2 seed after finishing 17-3 in conference and tying with Dixie State for the regular-season title.
The Cougars lost the tie-breaker to the Red Storm for the first overall seed. As the top two seeds, both schools have earned first-round byes.
“Each team poses a different matchup for us,” said APU senior guard Troy Leaf. “A different matchup problem, a different matchup advantage. But at this point, we have to beat the best teams in our league if we want to win a tournament championship.”
Azusa Pacific closed out the regular season with five straight wins. During that stretch, the Cougars avenged road losses to BYU-Hawaii and California Baptist.
APU is ranked 13th in the national coaches poll and first in the most recent West Region poll — the one that determines its fate in the NCAA tournament.
The Cougars have avoided the injury bug, maintaining the same starting five for all 28 regular-season games. The team will also be well-rested, having played only one game in 11 days preceding the PacWest tournament. It’s a recipe for continued success for the senior-led Cougars.
The team is likely to make the NCAA tournament regardless of the outcome of the conference tournament, but the Cougars want to prove that their regular-season championship and current regional ranking are no accident.
“We want to go in there with something to prove. We want to prove that it wasn’t a fluke that we won in the regular season,” Leaf said.
The Cougars have beaten every team in the field and are confident that regardless of the matchups, there is an opportunity for success.
“We’re just getting ready for playing our game because every time we’ve played our game, we’ve beaten our opponent,” said senior guard Kevin Stafford.
The Cougars will play the winner of the California Baptist vs. Hawaii Pacific game on March 6 at 4 p.m. at future PacWest member institution Concordia University in Irvine.
“As a player and young assistant, I used to overanalyze matchups, and then something would change,” said head coach Justin Leslie. “To win any tournament, you need to play your best games and beat the best teams.”
“We’re just getting ready for playing our game because every time we’ve played our game, we’ve beaten our opponent,” said senior guard Kevin Stafford.
The Cougars will play the winner of the California Baptist vs. Hawai’i Pacific game on March 6 at 4 p.m. at future PacWest member institution Concordia University in Irvine.
“As a player and young assistant, I used to overanalyze matchups, and then something would change,” said head coach Justin Leslie. “To win any tournament, you need to play your best games and beat the best teams.”
No. 1 Dixie State
The Cougars lost an overtime thriller to the Red Storm on the road that broke their 14-game winning streak. APU turned around a week later to beat Dixie State in the Felix Event Center, claiming the victory after coming back from an eight-point deficit with four minutes remaining.
The Red Storm has 6-foot-10 senior center Zach Robbins, who poses a matchup problem in the post for the Cougars, although APU was able to hold him to around his season averages in both meetings.
No. 3 California Baptist
The rival Lancers also split the season series with the Cougars, winning at home before coming to the Felix Event Center and losing. APU was able to hold Ryan Berg, the Lancers’ second-leading scorer, to just 12 points between the two contests while Leaf scored 61 points combined in the two.
Additionally, the Lancers relied on over 60 percent 3-point shooting in their win — a rate that is unlikely to be reproduced.
No. 4 BYU-Hawai’i
The Seasiders also pose a matchup problem in the post for the Cougars. BYU-H has four players that are over 6-foot-7, including 6-foot-10 and 6-foot-11 centers. In the game at BYU-H, the Seasiders out-rebounded the Cougars 42-29 to win 92-78. APU was able to tighten this margin to 36-33 during the rematch in Azusa, but the matchup is still troublesome for the smaller Cougars.
No. 5 Point Loma
The Cougars swept the season series against the Sea Lions, winning both games by more than 10 points. Point Loma was only able to grab one victory against the top four teams, falling squarely in between the upper echelon of squads and the rest of the conference. The Sea Lions do have some extra motivation with their eighth-place spot in the most recent regional ranking but would need a strong showing to earn an NCAA berth.
No. 6 Hawai’i Pacific
HPU must win the PacWest tournament to earn a berth in the NCAA tournament, but it’s unlikely for the Sharks, who finished 11-9 in the conference. The Cougars swept the Sharks this season, including a 78-50 drubbing in Azusa. Hawai’i Pacific’s best win was over Point Loma, and HPU was the only conference loser to the 1-19 Holy Names Hawks.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Azusa Pacific’s 14-6 conference record and fourth-place regular-season finish earned the team the fourth-seed in the PacWest Women’s Championship tournament.
Among the other five teams to clinch tournament berths, the Cougars only beat three during the regular season.
“We need to win,” said APU head coach T.J. Hardeman. “I think we’ve improved a lot as a team. I really feel like we’re starting to go to our strengths and recognize our weaknesses and stay away from those.”
APU enters the tournament with the PacWest’s second-leading scorer, Kelly Hardeman, one of just two players in the conference to reach the 500-point mark in the regular season. The junior forward nearly averages a double-double with 19 points and 9.6 rebounds per game.
The Cougars also enter the field with the one of the conference’s most dynamic point guards, Cydnie Jones. Her 2.2 steals per game rank third in the PacWest while her 4.5 assists per game are fourth. She also averages 10.5 points and 6.3 rebounds per game.
As the fourth seed, the Cougar women’s squad does not enjoy the benefits of a first-round bye like the top two seeds. APU will play Academy of Art in the first round on March 5 at Concordia University in Irvine. Tipoff is scheduled for 1:45 p.m. A win would advance the team to the semifinal game against No. 1 Hawai’i Pacific on March 6.
No. 5 Academy of Art
The Urban Knights swept the Cougars in the two-game season series. Azusa Pacific led both games at the half before second-half shooting adjustments put Academy of Art ahead. Both contests were determined in the final 90 seconds by less than five points.
The Cougars turned the ball over 44 times between the two games — giving the Knights 43 points off turnovers.
Hardeman said the team’s focuses going into Thursday’s game will be ball handling and limiting the Knights defensively.
“Last time we played [Academy of Art], we didn’t do a good job of getting a hand up on some of their shooters, so we’ll do a better job of that this time,” Hardeman said.
No. 1 Hawai’i Pacific
APU handed the regular-season PacWest Champion Hawai’i Pacific one of its only two conference losses, holding it to a 26.5 percent second-half shooting percentage to take the 78-67 win in Honolulu on Jan. 31.
Effectively limiting the Sharks again would be a challenge for any opponent in the tournament, given their .459 shooting percentage from the field overall this season.
No. 2 California Baptist
The Cougars and Lancers split this year’s series, each claiming wins on their home court.
In Riverside, CBU out-rebounded APU 44-35, coming away with 14 second-chance points off offensive boards. Although the Cougars held a 58-47 rebound advantage in the overtime win at home, the Lancers still managed to get 24 second-chance points. Add on the 36 points in the paint from that same game, and it’s evident CBU’s post-play could be problematic in a potential tournament matchup.
No. 3 Point Loma
Point Loma swept APU in the season series, including a 68-57 overtime win in Azusa on Jan. 21 when the team limited the Cougars to one of its lowest-scoring efforts along with among its poorest games shooting (31.1 percent).
APU-PLNU is a defense-driven matchup. The Cougars and Sea Lions have the lowest field-goal percentage defenses in the PacWest. APU has limited its opponents’ shooting to .366 while Point Loma has limited its to .367.
No. 6 BYU-Hawaii
BYU-Hawaii is the only team in the tournament field the Cougars have swept this season. The Seasiders turned the ball over 47 times against APU between the two contests, giving up 51 points in total.
APU limited BYU-H to seven offensive rebounds in the 68-46 win on Jan. 29, a number well below the Seasiders’ conference-leading 16.5 offensive boards per game.
Of the five other tournament teams, BYU-Hawaii had only defeated Academy of Art in the regular season.