The Point Loma women’s basketball team sent all five of its seniors out on a high note with an 80-64 win over Azusa Pacific on Feb. 9.
The victory helped PLNU (20-3, 14-2 PacWest) get some revenge against an APU (12-12, 10-6 PacWest) team that snapped their nine-game winning streak back in January. Since that game Point Loma has won six straight games (15 of 16 overall).
This game was a 180-degree turn from the matchup at APU where Point Loma was just 1-of-22 from behind the arc and scored a PacWest-season low 65 points. Feb. 9, PLNU knocked down nine 3-pointers and five Sea Lions reached double-figures to help propel the team to victory. Alex Brunk led all scorers with 23 points and eight rebounds. She was 8-of-11 at the free throw line as PLNU made more free throws (16) than the Cougars attempted (15). Roya Rustamzada added 18 points, including four 3-pointers, and seven rebounds.
Seniors Madison West, Sydney Tonack, Kassidy Gengenbacher and Anna Viettry (Riley Abraham hurt) all had quality performances in their last game at Golden Gym. Viettry finished one point of her season-high with 11 points (5-of-7). She also had three assists and two steals. Madison West knocked down three 3-pointer en route to recording 11 points and Gengenbacher came off the bench to score 10.
“Those seniors deserve that win, they have all worked so hard,” said Point Loma head coach Lisa Faulkner. “Yesterday they all shared what they would like to leave to the team, and for them to go out playing hard and beating Azusa Pacific is huge, and I am so happy for them.”
The defense drove the Sea Lions to the win as it turned APU over 20 times and held the Cougars to 37.9 percent shooting from the field. Meanwhile, Point Loma had just seven turnovers and outscored Azusa pacific 21-6 on points off turnovers.
“We knew the key to this game was going to be defense,” explained Faulkner. “They have a lot of scorers and are a really good 3-point shooting team. I told our team that if we held them to under 65 points we’d have a great chance of winning, and we held them to 64 so we did our job defensively.”
The win allows PLNU to complete its 2016-17 home schedule at 14-1, including winning its last 10 straight contests. The 20 wins match the most for the program since 2009-10 (26-5).
“We don’t expect to lose here so it is big to win each time here in Golden Gym and it was a great effort tonight,” added Faulkner.
Point Loma will now head to Hawaii to play three games in five days. They will open up with third-place 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 at California Baptist on Saturday, Feb. 25.