Justin Downer and his Point Loma Nazarene Sea Lions will gather for Selection Sunday hoping their strong body of work over the course of the season is enough to earn an at-large bid to next week’s NCAA Division II Tournament.
PLNU’s hopes for an automatic invite were dashed with a 78-66 loss to Azusa Pacific in the PacWest tournament championship game on Saturday afternoon at Golden Gymnasium.
The top-seeded Sea Lions (21-9) shot 40.7 percent from the field, 4-of-17 from 3-point range, missed seven three throws, were outrebounded 38-30 and never led after going up 14-13 at 14:27 of the first half.
Azusa Pacific (14-16) led by 10 at the half, and immediately saw that lead sliced to six at the start of the second half on a basket by Coby Barnes and two free throws from Wynton Brown. But then the Cougars pushed it back to double figures on a 3-ball from Bryce Sloan and layup from Kaleb Taylor.
The Cougars’ lead hovered between nine and 14 points the rest of the way.
George Speaker led Azusa Pacific with 21 points and nine rebounds.
Luke Smith led PLNU with 18 points, Barnes added 15 and Zack Paulsen finished with 13 points and seven rebounds.
Perhaps the key stat involved rebounding.
The Cougars held a 22-14 first half edge and a 9-2 advantage in second-chance points, and that disparity combined with PLNU shooting 2-of-8 from 3-point range left the Sea Lions chasing. They never quite caught up. The visiting Cougars always came up with the key stop, basket, rebound or made free throws they needed to remain in control of the game flow.
“Just a tough, physical game like we expected,” said Brown, who finished with eight points and three rebounds. ”They were able to get a lead and just kind of hold onto it. Every time we made a move, they had an answer.”
For the regular season co-champion Sea Lions, it was a tough potential ending to what has been a fantastic season despite the loss of guards Jake Lifgren and Tyce Paulsen to season-ending injuries.
With those two gone and a key returner from last season, sophomore guard Luke Haupt, unavailable all season, Downer was down to primarily playing a six-man rotation the final three-plus weeks.
Despite the limited roster, the Sea Lions entered Saturday on a three-game winning streak.
Now, they will wait and see if it was enough to keep dancing.
“We deserve to be in that tournament,” Downer said. “We have the third most wins in the region. Unfortunately for us, our conference didn’t fare as well in the nonconference but we did. We had some great wins, some great wins against teams that are going to be in that tournament. This team deserves a chance after overcoming so much adversity … we’re going to prepare accordingly.”
The teams split a pair of meetings during the regular season with each winning on their home floor. Saturday’s contest was a rematch of last year’s PacWest title game, won by PLNU 80-69.
Azusa Pacific’s uneven regular season performance — the Cougars lost seven straight at one point early and three straight during conference play — was all but forgotten as coach Peter Bond and seniors George Reidy and Ken West celebrated with the conference championship trophy after the game.
Saturday’s victory followed a 56-55 win over No. 3 seed Hawaii Pacific in Thursday’s first round and a 79-72 win over No. 2 seed and regular season co-champion Academy of Art in Friday’s semifinals.
“Being seeded where we were definitely was added motivation because we didn’t have anything to lose,” said Reidy, who finished with eight points and four assists. “All of the pressure was on the other team. We have a lot of confidence in our team. But yeah, that sixth seed was really a mindset advantage for us.”
Carter is a freelance writer.
