Mandrell Worthy had 10 points for the Cougars. (Photo by Duane Barker).
By Tim Peterson
(Glendora) – Cal Baptist outscored Azusa Pacific 44-31 in the second half and went on to beat the Cougars 84-74 Thursday night before a packed house at Felix Event Center.
Azusa Pacific fell behind 10-2 to open the game but battled back to a take a 43-40 lead at the half.
A Ben Taufahema three gave the Cougars their first lead of the game at 37-36. Taufahema led the Cougars in the first half with 10 points including two from beyond the arc. Point Guard Darien McClain had eight points and Mandrell Worthy and Corey Langerveld each tossed in six.
Jordan Heading topped the Lancers in the first half with 10 and Kalidou Diouf added nine. Kuol Bol scored eight in 15 minutes.
The Lancers opened the second half on a 7-0 run to take a four point advantage but again the Cougs responded. Tied at 52, Langerveld hit a three. Petar Kutlesic later buried one from long range as well to make it 59-54 APU with 13:13 left. Then the Lancers took over.
CBU went on a 12-0 run starting with Gabe Taylor’s bucket inside and ending with a Heading lay up as the Lancers went up 66-59. APU’s Noah Brundrant hit a three to stop the bleeding but Cal Baptist never looked back.
Will Ferris tries to drive past the defender. (Photo by Duane Barker).
The Lancers extended the lead to nine at the 4:30 mark on a pair of Diouf free throws. Worthy’s three point play cut it to 74-68 with 3:49 left.
Diouf hit a pair of free throws and Cory Lange knocked down a trey to make it 81-71 Lancers with 1:20 left and that was all she wrote.
CBU had four players in double figures. Diouf led the way with 21 points and eight rebounds, Lange and Heading each had 16 and Koul had 11.
For the Cougars, Kutlesic had 16 points and 10 rebounds, McClain, Taufahema and Worthy all finished with 10. Will Ferris added seven. The charity stripe proved to be APU’s undoing. The Cougs shot just 58.3 percent from the line making 14 of 24. Cal Baptist was over 71 percent hitting 15 of 21.
With the victory the Lancers completed a season sweep of Azusa Pacific and improved to 15-4 overall and 8-3 in the PacWest. APU fell to 15-6 and 10-3.
Next up for Azusa Pacific is a home game against Concordia Saturday night.
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