JACKSON, Tenn. -- Final preparations have been made and Azusa Pacific is revved up and ready to play their first round game when it arrives – seemingly at last – Thursday against Berry (Ga.) at 2:30 PST.
The Cougars have been in Tennessee all week and tonight participated in the annual NAIA Parade of Champions that introduces all 32 teams. With that now in the rearview mirror all attention turns to the Lady Vikings who earned their tournament berth by the Southern States Athletic Conference Tournament championship.
But Azusa Pacific has already gotten some of their competitive juices following albeit mixed in with plenty of laughs. On Tuesday, the Cougars and The Master’s tied the season series at 1-1 and settled things as most teams do – at the bowling alley. The 2 teams got 2 lanes each and for an hour bowled as fast as they could. In the end, the Mustangs came out on top.
In practice, head coach Danelle Liles had her team working on communicating on the defensive end as they focus on slowing down Berry’s potent attack.
“They have good shooters and we need to stay at home on them,” said Liles, who has appeared at the NAIA Tournament in all 3 of her seasons as coach at Azusa Pacific. “Deanna Duncan is a good post player too. She is strong and seals well. We going to have to play well against her and keep everyone else off the boards.”
Duncan was an All-SSAC honoree after averaging 16.2 points and 7.0 rebounds a game.
The Cougars are anxious to get to the opening tip-off. “We’re just ready because it feels like we haven’t played in awhile even though we had some game situational scrimmages last week,” Liles said.
Despite the 13 days between games, she doesn’t anticipate the time off will hinder her team. “I think our experience helps us understand we have to set the tempo from the get go. We may have some butterflies but if we get off to a good start it will send a good message to our bench,” added Liles.
The Cougars are looking for the program’s third win ever at the national tournament and victories in consecutive seasons for the first time.
