{"id":94523,"date":"2026-02-12T18:27:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T01:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=94523"},"modified":"2026-02-13T00:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T07:36:14","slug":"azusa-pacific-vs-vanguard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=94523","title":{"rendered":"Cougars Sink in Second Half, 84-64"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Shad Thomas soars to the basket for two of his team high 16 points. (Photo by Duane Barker). <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Tim Peterson <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Azusa) – Azusa Pacific trailed by just six points at halftime but Vanguard broke it wide open with a 21-9 run to open the second half and went on to rout the Cougars 84-64 Thursday night at Felix Event Center. <\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

Leading 38-32 at the half Vanguard quickly outscored the Cougars 12-6 to go up 50-38. Lions’ big man Sammy Howlin scored underneath and was fouled to turn it into a three-point play. Erik Howlin then converted consecutive layups and when Tony Colley got to the rim for another layup on the following possession Vanguard was suddenly up by 18 with 12:31 left and that was all she wrote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bryson Metz had a steal and a break away deuce for the Lions a minute later to increase the lead to 20. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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APU’s Tobias Aisien gets free to get off a shot. (Photo by Duane Barker). <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Cougars stayed with the Lions in the first half. Azusa Pacific fell behind 9-2 to open the game but then went on an 11-3 run to retake the lead 13-12 with 13:27 left in the first half. Shad Thomas threw down a jam and DM Sanders hit back-to-back threes to spark the Cougars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two teams traded baskets until late in the first half when Vanguard pulled away for a six-point lead at the break. Sanders led the Cougars with nine points in the first half and Thomas had six. EJ Bryson and Parker Christensen each scored five.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Vanguard Erik Howlin hit two from long distance and led the Lions with 10 first half points. Sammy Howlin scored seven down low as Vanguard carried the six-point advantage into the break. Vanguard then made quick work of APU in the second half. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomas finished on top of the scoring column with 16 points for the Cougars. Sanders had 12 on four three-pointers and Bryson finished with 10. Christensen and Tobias Aisien each added seven. Colton Gray had four points and four rebounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Colton Gray muscles his way inside for the Cougars. (Photo by Duane Barker). <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For victorious Vanguard Erik Howlin took scoring honors with 20 points Aibigho Ujadughele, who hit two consecutive threes late in the game, had 16. Metz scored 15 and Sammy Howlin added 14 in the paint. The Lions outrebounded APU 32-25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the seventh straight loss for the Cougars as they fell to 6-16 overall and 4-13 in the PacWest Conference with just five games remaining. Vanguard improved to 12-10 and 8-8 in conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

VU 38 46 84<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AP 32 32 64 <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tim Peterson (Azusa) – Azusa Pacific trailed by just six points at halftime but Vanguard broke it wide open with a 21-9 run to open the second half and went on to rout the Cougars 84-64 Thursday night at Felix Event Center.<\/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":[],"class_list":["post-94523","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\/94523","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\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=94523"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94541,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94523\/revisions\/94541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=94523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=94523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}