{"id":83394,"date":"2024-03-15T21:47:07","date_gmt":"2024-03-16T04:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=83394"},"modified":"2024-03-16T08:36:43","modified_gmt":"2024-03-16T15:36:43","slug":"sloan-sends-cougars-to-semis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=83394","title":{"rendered":"Sloan Sends Cougars to Semis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Bryce Sloan’s free throw with 2.7 seconds left was the difference. (Photo by Duane Barker). <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Bud Stallworth<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Los Angeles)\u2014The Azusa Pacific Cougars defeated the Cal State Los Angeles Golden Eagles, 60-59, at Billie Jean King Arena on Friday night in the quarterfinal of the NCAA Division II West Regional Championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Bryce Sloan’s free throw with 2.7 remaining proved to be the difference in the APU win and the cap to a chaotic final minute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ken West led the Cougars with 14 points. (Photo by Duane Barker). <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After the Cougars built a 12-point, 35-23, lead in the first half, the Golden Eagles turned to a full-court press in the second half to crawl back into the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without a Raymond Lewis jersey hanging in the rafters, Cal State LA tied the game at 47 with 7:18 to play and briefly took the lead on a Shane Bell basket with 4:31 remaining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

APU’s Ethan Speaker quickly tied the score, and George Reidy put the Cougars on top, 55-53, with 2:47 to play. Then, after successive defensive stops, Speaker scored on a reverse layup and a one-handed turnaround in the lane with 54 seconds left to make it 59-53.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bell brought the Golden Eagles to within four on a runner in the lane. Cal State followed with a timeout with 44.5 left on the clock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This led to back-to-back steals by the Golden Eagles on Cougar inbound plays. First, Bell and then Eche Okeke tied the score at 59 with 31.5 to play in the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ethan Speaker scored 11 for APU including a key bucket to tie the score down the stretch. (Photo by Duane Barker). <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

APU called timeout and inbounded the ball to Reidy, but the Cal State defense forced the ball loose, and the Golden Eagles took possession and called timeout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With 24.9 on the clock, the pass from the sideline went to Bell, who caught it in the front court, but his momentum took him to the backcourt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The over-and-back call was made to give APU the ball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the clock ran down to 7.6, the Cougars called another timeout. The play was designed to go to 6-11 center Kaleb Taylor. The pass was batted away, but Sloan got the loose ball and was fouled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sloan’s first attempt went off the front of the rim, but the second was true, giving APU a 60-59 lead. The Golden Eagles got the ball up-court to Bell, but his 40-foot heave went off the heel of the rim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corey Cofield led all scorers with 16-points. Bell finished with 13, and Okeke scored 12 for Cal State. Ken West led APU with 14-points, Reidy and Speaker finished with 11 each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The teams were even in rebounds APU 34-30, but Cal State was stung by 19 turnovers to the Cougars 13. APU shot 46% from the floor, the Golden Eagles just 39%. The Cougars got 13-points off the bench, Cal State only 4.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The victory advances APU to the semifinals of the D-2 West Regionals against the winner of Central Washington and Cal State Dominguez.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bud Stallworth (Los Angeles)\u2014The Azusa Pacific Cougars defeated the Cal State Los Angeles Golden Eagles, 60-59, at Billie Jean King Arena on Friday night in the quarterfinal of the NCAA Division II West Regional Championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[871],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-college"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83394"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83404,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83394\/revisions\/83404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}