Azusa Pacific takes the spotlight from Point Loma for at least one week with a trio of wins last week. Ken West was a big part of that with 74 points to earn Player of the Week, and Biola’s Maximo Milovich had a pair of double-doubles to gain the Defender of the Week banner.

2022-23 Results/Schedule
2022-23 Standings
2022-23 Statistics

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Azusa Pacific’s Ken West, F, Jr., 6-8, 215, Bellevue, Wash.            
2021-22 First Team All-PacWest selection Ken West found his range in three Azusa Pacific victories last week. The 6-foot-8 sharpshooter scored a total of 74 points, averaging 24.7 points for the week, along with 6.3 rebounds a contest. He didn’t waste shots, draining 55 percent of his field goal attempts and he converted 64 percent of his shots from long range (19-for-33). West had 26 points in a 83-78 win over Chaminade, 26 again against Academy of Art (75-58 win) and 22 and eight rebounds in just 24 minutes in a 93-62 verdict over Dominican. The Washington native hit 8-of-12 shots against the Penguins and at some point in the trio of games surpassed the 1,000 point barrier in his third full season in a Cougar uniform. He now has 1,042 points.
 
DEFENDER OF THE WEEK: Biola’s Maximo Milovich, F, RS-Fr., 6-8, 215, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Skilled Biola big man Maximo Milovich had two double-doubles as the Eagles split games last week. In a 68-64 victory over Dominican, the Argentina native had 13 points and 11 rebounds as the Eagles sped past the Penguins in the final minute of the game. During a 79-66 loss to Academy of Art, Milovich had 17 points and 12 rebounds to average 15 points and 11.5 rebounds for the week. Milovich had eight double-doubles on the season and leads the PacWest in rebounding with 9.5 per game.

COUGARS MOVE BACK INTO SECOND PLACE: The PacWest Team of the Week is the AZUSA PACIFIC COUGARS. With wins over Chaminade, Academy of Art and Dominican, Azusa Pacific slipped into second place in the PacWest standings at 12-4, just ahead of Hawai`i Hilo (10-4). In addition to Ken West’s numbers (see above), the Cougars got solid play from guard Hayden Gray, who had 21 points and five assists against Chaminade and 11 points, nine assists and four steals against the Penguins. Nate Kleppe chipped in with 13 points, 10 boards and two blocks against the Silverswords and Bryce Sloan had 17 points against the Urban Knights. APU sits in a solid fifth spot in the latest D2SIDA West Region poll with a 17-6 overall mark. After dropping three games in a row in mid-January, the Cougars have now reeled off five straight wins.

DEAD HEAT IN SIXTH: Chaminade won two of three games last week to move into a tie with Dominican for the sixth spot in the PacWest standings. Both teams sit at 7-10, sharing the last qualifying spot for the PacWest tournament, to be held on Chaminade’s campus March 2-4. Point Loma had just one game last week and remains unblemished at 16-0, followed by Azusa Pacific (12-4), Hawai`i Hilo (10-4), Academy of Art (10-6), and Biola (9-6). Looking up at the Silverswords and Penguins are Concordia (4-10), Hawai`i Pacific (3-10), Fresno Pacific (3-11) and Holy Names (2-12).

SEA LIONS UNANIMOUS PICK FOR NO. 1: In today’s D2SIDA men’s basketball west region poll, the Sea Lions remained No. 1 for the fourth week in a row and claimed all six votes again. Point Loma, now 21-3, had 60 voting points to Cal State San Bernardino’s 51. Five PacWest teams overall are still in the rankings, which look like this….1) Point Loma 21-3, (2) Cal State San Bernardino 17-3, (3) Montana State Billings 18-5, (4) St. Martin’s 18-4, (5) Azusa Pacific 17-6, (6) Cal State San Marcos 13-8, (7) Academy of Art 15-8, (8) Hawai`i Hilo 14-5, (9) Seattle Pacific 14-8, (10) Biola 14-8.

PACWEST NEWS AND NOTES: Alex Wright was unreal during Biola’s 68-64 comeback win over Dominican. Wright, who finished with 30 points, had 11 points in the final minute of the Eagles’ furious comeback. He also had six rebounds, three assists and three steals…Point Loma ran their win streak to 17 games with their 67-56 victory over Holy Names. Luke Haupt had 16 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, while Kaden Anderson added a typical 15 points, 14 rebounds and a pair of steals…Mason Landdeck had 26 points for Hawai`i Pacific, along with seven rebounds and four assists in HPU’s loss to Fresno Pacific. Melo Sanchez added 23 points for the Sharks, while Nate Kendricks (22 points, six assists) and Darrin Person (21 points, eight boards) led the Sunbirds…Braden Olson had 26 points in Chaminade’s tight loss (83-78) to Azusa Pacific…The Silverswords bounced back with a 81-69 win over Concordia behind Jalen Brattain’s 21 points and Raazhel Watkin’s balanced line of ten points, eight rebounds, four assists and two steals…In CUH’s 96-72 victory at Fresno Pacific, Watkins added 19 points and Isaac Amaral-Artharee had 18 points and nine rebounds. Kyle Monk had 19 for the Sunbirds…Jaayden Bush had a double-double of 15 points and 11 rebounds in Dominican’s loss to Biola…ART U’s Mike Asante also had a double-double with 17 points and 13 rebounds (and three blocks) in their loss to APU…Concordia had a satisfying 86-82 win over Holy Names, snapping a six-game losing streak. Kobe Sanders had a career-high 33 points, Cameron Fini added 22 and Jackson Tucker had 20. Roman Behrans had 21 for the Hawks…Jamal Fuller had 21 points for Academy of Art during their impressive win over Biola. Klay Brown had 17 points and five assists.

PacWest SEASON HEADS INTO FINAL THREE WEEKS: Teams will continue to jockey for position as PacWest play heads into the final three weeks of the season. Big games include (aren’t they all big this time of the year?) Biola at Point Loma on Wednesday, Azusa Pacific at Biola on Saturday and Dominican at Academy of Art on Saturday.