A 24-10 run by Azusa Pacific to close out the game spoiled Senior Night for the Point Loma men’s basketball team as the Cougars came away with the 73-64 victory on Feb. 9.
The result brings Azusa Pacific (13-13, 8-8 PacWest) to within one game of Point Loma (13-10, 9-7 PacWest) for the fifth seed in the PacWest Conference Tournament (March 3-5).
Senior Trevor Peterson scored a career-high 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting. He also had three rebounds and a team-leading four assists. Fellow senior Tanner Lancona added 10 points and Vince Boumann scored 11.
Petar Kutlesic had a double-double to lead Azusa Pacific with 17 points and 10 rebounds. He was 7-of-11 from the field. Justin Byrd (17), Joey Schreiber (16) and Corey Langerveld (13) also scored in double-figures for the Cougars. Point Loma built an early 11-point lead and were up by five points with under eight minutes left when Azusa Pacific started on its 24-10 run. They scored 15 of the next 16 points to turn a five-point deficit into a nine-point lead (67-58) in less than four minutes. PLNU would never get the game back to a one-possession contest. “Azusa Pacific is a very potent offensive team and we let them get their confidence in the second half and it spiraled out of control on us,” explained Point Loma head coach Ryan Looney. “I thought they made some good adjustments too. They made the decision that our big guys couldn’t guard a ball-screen and they put our 4 and 5 in that position almost every possession in the second half.”
This was the final home game for PLNU seniors Trevor Peterson, Zach Burnham, Tanner Lancona, Emerson Castaneda (who opened the game with a 3-pointer) and Mike Planeta.
Point Loma will now head to Hawaii to play three games in five days (Feb. 16-20). They will open up with No. 3 nationally ranked Hawaii Pacific on Thursday, Feb. 16 before facing Chaminade (Feb. 18) and BYU-Hawaii (Feb. 20). The Sea Lions will then close out the regular season with a game on Fox Sports One at No. 8 California Baptist on Saturday, Feb. 25.
“Our guys need to understand that our schedule is really tough down the stretch, starting with tonight’s game,” said Looney. “We have to be way more disciplined, way more mature and much better together as a team to win any of the games we have remaining on our schedule.”