By Tim Peterson
(Glendora) – Azusa Pacific went on a 21-4 run over the last eight minutes and went on to beat Academy of Art 75-58 Thursday night at Felix Events Center.
West and Bryce Sloan each hit a pair of three pointers to get Azusa Pacific off and running in the first half. The Cougars led 24-21 with 11:31 left.
West hit three beyond the arc in the first half and led the team with 11 points. Sloan had 8 and Robertson nailed two from long distance and had 7 in the first half.
Academy of Art stayed with the Cougars throughout the first half. APU’s biggest lead of the half was four. Mike Asante kept the Knights close with 15 points connecting on 7 of 11 from the field. Klay Brown contributed nine. There were 15 lead changes in the first half as the two teams were tied at 41 at the break.
Both teams had trouble finding a rhythm in the second half before the score was tied at 54 when McKelary Robertson and West hit consecutive threes and the Cougs shifted into cruise control.
Ken West hit four three pointers during the run and scored 12 points. West had 26 overall to lead all scorers including 15 in the second half. West surpassed 1000 points in his Azusa Pacific career with a first half three.
With the score 60-54 West hit another trey two minutes later and with 5:16 left the Cougars were up 63-54. Another West three with 3:13 left made it 66-56 and APU was on the way to the 17-point win.
APU held the Knights to just 17 points in the second half after a 41-point first half.
Sloan finished with 17 and Robertson had 11 to join West in double figures for the Cougars. For Academy of Art Asante finished with 17 and Brown had 12.
With the with the win APU improved to 16-6 overall and 11-4 in the PacWest Conference. Academy of Art fell to 14-8 and 9-6.
APU continues to be one of the most consistent winning programs, hopefully they can make another postseason run.
Whoa big fella. If connected means the social media gossip then you are correct But you name the time and place for an SGV high school sports quiz and I’m in. I’ll even let you get help and phone a friend like JT.
From T. Peterson: If that’s true and you have been reading MVS for any amount of time then you would know we have covered APU basketball for years. Not sure why that’s weird. It’s actually normal for us. We covered APU Football too until they dropped the program.
Weird to cover this. Must be the free dogs.
From T. Peterson. No free food but it’s weird to cover APU basketball? Why? It’s Azusa Pacific. They play DIV 2. Seriously you’ve never heard of them? You’re not very well connected to sports in the SGV are you?