Men's Basketball

Point Loma Sets Up Championship Game Between Top-2 Seeds

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – The PacWest regular season champion Point Loma has booked a spot in the PacWest Championships final with a 77-65 win against Azusa Pacific on Friday as Preston Beverly led the Sea Lions’ offense with 19 points.

BOX SCORE | POINT LOMA INTERVIEW | AZUSA PACIFIC INTERVIEW
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The tournament's No. 1 seed Point Loma improves to 25-4 on the season and advances to its second PacWest Championship game in three years. The Sea Lions will take on No. 2 seed Concordia on Saturday at 2 p.m. No. 4 seed Azusa Pacific wraps up its season with a 20-11 record after reaching the PacWest semifinals for the fourth time in five years.
 
Point Loma picked up its third win over Azusa Pacific this season after leading throughout the final 33 minutes of the game. It was a 9-0 run early in the game that gave Point Loma a 16-9 lead that never went away. The run was capped off by a 3-pointer and lay-up separated by a minute by Ben Okhotin.
 
Azusa Pacific pulled back within three points early in the second half on a lay-up by Garrett Beetstra, but that was the closest that the Cougars got for the rest of the game. Daulton Hommes answered with a jumper for the Sea Lions, and then Beverly scored on consecutive possessions to help push the lead back to double digits.
 
Beverly finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season. Josh Rodriguez added 14 points, five steals and four assists, while Hommes finished with 10 points and six rebounds.
 
Azusa Pacific’s offense was led by Darien McClain’s 19 points. He also had seven assists, five rebounds and a steal in his final game in a Cougar uniform. Selom Mawugbe tallied 13 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks. Noah Bundrant made three shots from beyond the arc, and on defense, he held the PacWest Player of the Year to just 10 points.
 
Point Loma and Concordia will meet in the PacWest Championships final in the second meeting between the two teams in a week. The Sea Lions’ won last Saturday’s meeting in San Diego after Concordia won in overtime in the first meeting between the two teams this season. The two teams also met in the quarterfinals of the PacWest Championships last year, which was won by Concordia.