AZUSA, Calif. –- Although the NAIA's No. 24-ranked Azusa Pacific had 4 individual double-digit scoring performances, it was a stiff Cougar defense that came up with 6 blocks, 18 steals and forced McKendree (Ill.) into 28 turnovers in an 84-72 victory to wrap up the opening day of action at the 7th Annual GSAC Challenge Thursday evening at the Felix Event Center.
Senior guard Monica Somers scored a game-high 22 points and led the Cougar defense with a game-high 5 steals, and junior forward Abby Johnson had 4 of Azusa Pacific's 6 blocks. Somers, coming off a career performance in which she poured in 36 points on 11-of-15 shooting from the field in a 73-61 win over William Jewell (Mo.) a week ago, wasn’t quite as deadly from the field (7-for-16), but she made up the difference at the charity stripe, sinking 8-of-9 free throws, including 6 in the second half to help ice the victory. She also helped spearhead a tough perimeter defense that held McKendree to just 1 3-pointer in each half for a 15 percent clip (2-for-13) from 3-point range.
"You always want to be in the driver's seat and control the tempo," said Somers, who helped lead a pair of second-half comebacks from double-digit deficits in a pair of victories at last weekend's Cruzin' Classic in Miami Shores, Fla. "No team likes to have to come back from double digits, so I think it's good for us to climb that mountain and know that we're not going to be behind by a lot every game and have to come back. We can control the tempo, we can control the rebounding and we can take control of the game."
In the first half, the lead changed hands 8 times and was tied 6 more times before senior guard Alyssa Ferdaszewski downed a 3-pointer to give Azusa Pacific a 28-25 lead with 4:07 to play in the first half, and senior forward Meliame Hala’ufia scored the first 5 points of an 11-1 run that gave the Cougars a 43-31 halftime lead. Somers scored back-to-back layups during the run to lead all scorers entering halftime with 12 points.
"We're kind of riding this rollercoaster right now," said Cougar head coach Danelle Bishop. "We've seen it in Florida, and now we've seen it here. We go on spurts where we play great defense, come back and score and start getting some fast break points. I thought we got the ball inside somewhat effectively, but I thought we weren’t getting it in there enough. We didn't exactly adjust or do anything differently, we just did what we've been trying to do all year. A lot of our offense is reading the defense."
Hala'ufia finished with a season-high 16 points on a 6-of-8 performance from the field, and senior guard Sarah Leathers scored 10 of her 12 points in the second half, including a pair of 3-pointers. Leathers also dished out a game-high 8 assists and nabbed 4 steals.
"We work a lot on our high-low offense in practice, and we're just working together and really starting to read each other," said Hala'ufia. "Our guards are reading the posts better, and we know when to kick it back out again. We all know when someone's on, so we give them the ball, and we just feed off each other."
McKendree was led by senior guard Katie Hasheider's team-high 20 points and 8 assists, and senior forward Emily Hart added a 19-point, 10-rebound double-double. Junior forward Suzy Gerler added 13 points, 6 rebounds and a block for the Bearcats.
With the result, Azusa Pacific improves to 8-3 on the season, while McKendree drops to 7-5. The Cougars host Olivet Nazarene (Ill.), which earlier today set the collegiate women's basketball record for most points by the losing team in a regulation game in a 122-119 loss to California Baptist, in a 6 p.m. contest to wrap up the 7th Annual GSAC Challenge. McKendree faces the NAIA's No. 7-ranked The Master’s in a 4 p.m. contest at the Felix Event Center.
