{"id":46845,"date":"2015-02-28T17:16:44","date_gmt":"2015-03-01T00:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=46845"},"modified":"2015-02-28T23:09:23","modified_gmt":"2015-03-01T06:09:23","slug":"azusa-pacific-vs-fresno-pacific","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=46845","title":{"rendered":"Cougars Cut Down the Nets"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Petar<\/a>

Petar Kutlesic made his presence felt offensively and defensivley.<\/p><\/div>\n

By Tim Peterson<\/p>\n

(Azusa) – Azusa Pacific\u00a0was down 7-0\u00a0right of the gate but bounced back to take the lead 15-13 on a Will Ward basket with 11:20 left in the first half and never trailed again.\u00a0The Cougars proceeded to roll to a\u00a099-77 win over Fresno Pacific Saturday\u00a0at the Felix Event Center to clinch at least a share of the PacWest Conference title. It’s their\u00a0first conference championship since 2006.<\/p>\n

With the victory APU also earned a bye in the first round of the conference tournament which begins Thursday in Irvine.\u00a0Azusa Pacific\u00a0players and head coach Justin Leslie celebrated by cutting down the nets after the victory.<\/p>\n

\"Robert<\/a>

Robert Sandoval gets a deuce on Senior Day for APU.<\/p><\/div>\n

After grabbing the lead\u00a0the Kevin Stafford hit a big three as Cougars went on a 9-0 run to go up\u00a026-17. Bruce English later knocked down a three to give Azusa Pacific an 11 point margin.\u00a0Fresno Pacific made a push just before the end of the half to trim the Azusa Pacific advantage\u00a0to 44-38 at the break.<\/p>\n

Fresno Pacific\u00a0got to within four at 59-55 with 13:00 left in the game but the Cougars then went on a blitz to put it on ice.\u00a0Troy Leaf had two straight lay-ups and a steal to highlight\u00a0a 12-0 run that increased the lead to 16.<\/p>\n

It eventually turned into\u00a021-7\u00a0as\u00a0Lydell Cardwell buried a three to make it 93-72 with\u00a02:23 left. Game, set, match.<\/p>\n

Leaf led the way with 21 points\u00a0shooting 8-17 from the field. Ward was a monster inside with 17\u00a0going 8-12, Petar Kutlesic had 14 and Robert Sandoval added 11.<\/p>\n

The Cougars shot 53 percent from the field overall.<\/p>\n

Trevon Clayton took scoring honors for Fresno Pacific\u00a0with 19. Madison Higgins scored 14 while Gabe Solarin tossed in 13.\u00a0The Sunbirds shot 45 percent from the floor.<\/p>\n

APU finished 24-4\u00a0overall and 17-3 in the PacWest. The Cougars now attempt to\u00a0top it off with a tourney title. Fresno Pacific ended the regular season at\u00a09-19, 5-15.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tim Peterson (Azusa) – Azusa Pacific\u00a0was down 7-0\u00a0right of the gate but bounced back to take the lead 15-13 on a Will Ward basket with 11:20 left in the first half and never trailed again.\u00a0The Cougars proceeded to roll to a\u00a099-77 win over Fresno Pacific Saturday\u00a0at the Felix Event Center to clinch at least […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[871],"tags":[8824,4944,10962,10983,10961,10829,10982,10957,10888,10976,10977,8830,10830],"class_list":["post-46845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college","tag-azusa-pacific-basketball","tag-bruce-english","tag-fresno-pacific-basketball","tag-gabe-solarin","tag-justin-leslie","tag-kevin-stafford","tag-madison-higgins","tag-pacwest-conference","tag-petar-kutlesic","tag-robet-sandoval","tag-trevon-clayton","tag-troy-leaf","tag-will-ward"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46845"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46875,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46845\/revisions\/46875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}