Biola, Azusa Pacific and Point Loma all went 2-0 last week in PacWest men’s basketball, and also snagged all three weekly awards. Alex Wright (Biola) helped his team to a pair of wins with 46 total points and APU’s Nate Kleppe got his coach’s nod as the leader of a defensive squad that held their opponents to 52 and 68 points respectively. Point Loma kept rolling with their ninth and tenth straight wins to earn Team of the Week.

2022-23 Results/Schedule
2022-23 Standings
2022-23 Statistics
D2SIDA West Region and National Poll

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Biola’s Alex Wright, G, Sr., 6-5, 195, Riverside, Calif.                                                         
Fifth-year standout guard Alex Wright had 46 points, 12 rebounds and six assists last week in helping to lead the Eagles to home wins over Fresno Pacific and Holy Names. In the 86-77 victory over the Sunbirds, the 6-foot-5 guard had 26 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Versus the Hawks (85-78 win), the SoCal native had 20 points and five rebounds. Wright has started 115 consecutive games for the Eagles and in 2022-23 is averaging 15.5 points a game, 6.2 rebounds and 3.1 assists per contest.
 
DEFENDER OF THE WEEK: Azusa Pacific’s Nate Kleppe, F, So., 6-8, 205, Edmonds, Wash.                                    
Azusa Pacific’s Nate Kleppe was a defensive stopper in the Cougars’ 80-52 win over Fresno Pacific and their 95-68 bouncing of Holy Names. The 6-foot-8 sophomore leads a Cougar defense that is allowing a PacWest-best 64.5 points a game. According to his coach Peter Bond, Kleppe is the defensive ringleader. "Most of the time the stats don't reflect the important role Nate plays for us defensively,” Bond said. “Nate is extremely consistent in his approach and is able to guard multiple types of players at a variety of positions. We are pleased that his defensive ability is being recognized."

SEA LION STREAK CONTINUES: The PacWest Team of the Week is the POINT LOMA SEA LIONS. Point Loma won their ninth and tenth consecutive games last week with victories over Hawaii Pacific (90-59) and Chaminade (84-80). The Sea Lions, ranked second in the latest D2SIDA West Region poll and 21^st in last week’s national poll, climbed to 14-3 overall and 9-0 in the PacWest. Luke Haupt led Point Loma against the upset-minded Silverswords with 26 points and six rebounds, while Kaden Anderson added 20 points and 11 boards. Anderson had 16 points and six rebounds against the Sharks, with Haupt chipping in 16 as did Brian Gorake. Point Loma is now the lone remaining unbeaten team in PacWest play, with a Wednesday showdown looming against 7-1 Azusa Pacific.

SEPARATION WIDENS IN PACWEST STANDINGS: Point Loma is the only unbeaten team in the PacWest standings, but they have company close by. For teams with PacWest tournament hopes, the gap between the top six and the rest has widened a bit. Point Loma is 9-0, Azusa Pacific 7-1, and Hawaii Hilo is 5-1, with a trio of teams tied at 5-3—Academy of Art, Biola and Dominican. The 5-3 teams have a 2.5 game lead over the seventh place team, Concordia (2-5). Still not even half way home with each team ultimately playing 20 PacWest games, the final goal is to be in the top six and qualify for the PacWest Tournament, March 2-4 in Honolulu.

D2SIDA WEST REGION POLL IS 50% PACWEST: In today’s D2SIDA west region poll, the PacWest has five of the ten teams listed. Point Loma highlights the list, holding the No. 2 slot, while Azusa Pacific is 4, Hawaii Hilo 6, Academy of Art 8 and Biola 10. Here is the west region list on 1/9/23. (1) Cal State San Bernardino 10-1, (2) Point Loma 14-3, (3) Saint Martin’s 13-2, (4) Azusa Pacific 12-3, (5) Montana State Billings 12-4, (6) Hawaii Hilo 9-2 (7) Seattle Pacific 10-5, (8) Academy of Art 10-5, (9) Cal Poly Pomona 7-4, (10) Biola 10-5.

PACWEST NEWS AND NOTES: Hawaii Hilo had just one game in last week’s time slot (Wednesday to Sunday) but rolled to a 20-point win over Concordia (84-64). Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones had 28 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and three steals in the victory. Darren Williams added 17 points and six assists…Holy Names’ Dale Currie struck for 27 points in HNU’s 85-78 loss to Biola. Daniel Esparza added 19 points to Alex Wright’s 20 for Biola and Maximo Milovich had a double-double with 16 points and 11 boards…Hayden Gray led four APU players in double figures (12 points and six assists) in their 80-52 victory over Fresno Pacific…George Reidy had 20 and Ken West 19 in APU’s win over Holy Names. Roman Behrans had 20 for the Hawks…Isaac Amaral-Artharee had 27 points as Chaminade put a licking on Concordia, 77-51. Ross Reeves had a balanced stat line with 19 points, five rebounds, five assists and four steals…Two nights later against conference leader Point Loma, the Silverswords’ Braden Olson had 30 points and five assists. Reeves added 19 points and seven rebounds…Nate Kendricks had 26 for the Sunbirds during their loss to Biola…Richard Rivers hit 9 of 12 shots for Academy of Art (19 points) in their win at Hawaii Pacific. Melo Sanchez had 18 points and seven boards for the Sharks...Dominican was idle this past Wednesday-Sunday.

BUSY PACWEST SCHEDULE FEATURES GAMES EVERY DAY: There are games every day this week in the PacWest, starting with tonight’s (Monday) Dominican at Hawaii Hilo contest. Top tier games include Wednesday’s Azusa Pacific at Point Loma contest, and Thursday’s Academy of Art at Hawaii Hilo showdown.