FRESNO, Calif. – Azusa Pacific lived up to its No. 1 seed after having won the PacWest regular season title by also winning the PacWest Championships title on Saturday with a 60-49 win over Academy of Art in the Special Events Center.
 
Azusa Pacific put on one of its best defensive performances of the season, holding the Urban Knights to a 28.6 field-goal percentage. Alex Lowden had three steals and a block, Kayla Shaw tallied two blocks and two steals, Paige Uyehara made five steals, and Laura Pranger was credited with three blocks to put a stop to Academy of Art, which came into the game as one of the hottest teams in the league with a seven-game winning streak.
 
Azusa Pacific is now 24-3 on the season and will find out on Monday at 7 p.m. (Pacific) where it will be seeded in the NCAA West Regional. The final spot in that regional tournament comes down to three teams with Academy of Art being one of the teams under consideration along with Concordia and Dominican, who each lost in the quarterfinals of the PacWest Championships. Academy of Art is now 18-10, which is tied for the second-best winning percentage in the PacWest.
 
Lowden, Pranger and Uyehara went a combined 1 for 15 to start the game as Academy of Art got out to a 25-23 lead in the third quarter of a tough defensive game. Then it was those same three players to helped give Azusa pacific the lead for good. Uyehara knocked down a 3-pointer, Pranger scored in the paint and then Lowden made a 3-pointer of her own on consecutive possessions. Shaw then scored a lay-up in the paint to make it a 10-0 run.
 
Azusa Pacific never trailed again, but Academy of Art did pull within four points in the final three minutes of the game with the help of a bank shot by Alisha Wilson, who scored 15 points while battling injury.
 
Lowden took over the game from there, knocking down a 3-pointer on the next possession to make the lead seven. She grabbed the defensive rebound on the other end of the floor, which led to a lay-up in the paint by Uyehara. Lowden later got a steal and made a fastbreak lay-up in the paint with 30 seconds left to seal the victory.
 
Shaw finished the game with a team-high 17 points for a total of 57 points in the tournament. Molly Whitmore was the second-leading scorer for Azusa Pacific with 14 on 7 of 11 shooting. Lowden and Uyehara both had 10 points.
 
Academy of Art was led in scoring by Kaila Murrell and Wilson, who both scored 15 points off the bench. Christy Ojide added 11 points, 14 rebounds and two blocks.
 
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
Kayla Shaw, Azusa Pacific, Tournament MVP
Alex Lowden, Azusa Pacific
Laura Pranger, Azusa Pacific
Paige Uyehara, Azusa Pacific
Milan Tuttle, Academy of Art
Chanel Stuart, Academy of Art