In a rematch of last year’s semifinal, the Sea Lions faced the No. 1 seed Azusa Pacific Cougars with a trip to the PacWest title game on the line. Point Loma came away with a stunning upset in 2018, but this year they were unable to find the offensive rhythm to make a repeat trip to the championship game. They held APU to 64 points on the night, but fell 64-55 to end their 2018-19 campaign.
The Cougars came out of the gate with intensity that PLNU was unable to match, allowing APU to gain a 15-4 lead early in the first quarter. Point Loma found themselves down just nine points after the quarter and were able to come back and tie the game at 22 early in the second quarter. Consecutive threes from Alex Lowden and Laura Pranger of the Cougars would push their lead back to six points, the lead only dropped below six once more in the game.
The Sea Lions were never able to put together a significant stretch of great offense and APU took advantage of their size to help put Point Loma away for good. While PLNU was able to outrebound the Cougars, they were unable to come away with the buckets needed to get back in the game. A late defensive surge, and a couple of huge baskets from Isabel Turk, helped cut into the APU lead late but it wasn’t enough to come back from a 17-point fourth quarter deficit.
Cara Liggins led the Sea Lions in scoring with 12 points and secured her 10th double-double of the season with 10 boards on the night. Sydney Peterson went 3-of-4 from three point range and connected on two free throws to total 11 points on the night. In her last collegiate game, Yuendie Guridi led Point Loma with four assists, while scoring five points and grabbing five rebounds.
Team Records
PLNU (19-11, 17-5 PacWest), APU (25-4, 21-1 PacWest). Turning Point
The Cougars opened the fourth quarter on a 12-6 run, pushing their 11-point lead to 17 and never looked back as the Sea Lions were unable to cut the lead to below double digits until the final minutes of the game. News and Notes
> The Sea Lions held a 20-13 offensive rebounding advantage, but the Cougars outscored PLNU 11-7 in second chance points.
> Point Loma’s bigs went a combined 1-of-12 from the field.
> This was the narrowest margin of victory for the Cougars over the Sea Lions this season.
> Liggins, Grace Brady, and Carol Schroeder all grabbed at least four offensive rebounds on the night.
> Isabel Turk scored eight points, had two assists and two steals in 18 minutes of action.
> The Cougars had three players each score 15 points.
