Lions hold on to top Cougars

Richard Dunn

For the past six years, all Golden State Athletic Conference

women’s basketball championships have been won by Vanguard University

and Azusa Pacific, which could only mean one thing for fans this year

when to the NAIA powerhouses square off.

Hold on to your pompoms.

And fresh in Vanguard Coach Russ Davis’ mind was last year,

following the host Lions’ 58-55 edge-of-your-seat GSAC win Saturday

night.

“They beat us last year in double overtime in our homecoming game

and in triple overtime in the GSAC Finals,” Davis said of the

Cougars, as if he was glad to spit out that bitter APU taste from

2001-02. “There’s a good rivalry between us.”

Vanguard (13-7, 8-1 in the GSAC) was picked in the preseason by

conference coaches to finish ninth, something Davis is also proud to

bring up these days considering his team’s riding high in first

place.

Davis, who said the recent GSAC road victories over Westmont,

Fresno Pacific and Point Loma Nazarene were huge for his 20th-ranked

program, understandably might have felt a little uncomfortable in the

waning seconds of the Lions’ triumph over Azusa Pacific (6-13, 4-4).

The Lions rallied in the second half, after a 26-26 intermission

tie, draining 5 of 9 three-point shots and thwarting every surge the

Cougars came up with in the second 20 minutes.

What looked like a relatively easy night for the Lions after their

early 15-5 lead became more complicated. In fact, the Cougars chased

down deficits regularly, making the most of their full-court

pressure. The Cougars led in the first half for their only time,

26-24, with 0:15 left and were tied with VU on five occasions -- the

last coming after Vanguard’s Cecilia Josefsson nailed an 18-foot

jumper with 0:03 remaining to tie it at 26.

Vanguard came out strong in the second half, taking the lead

quickly and never losing it, although Azusa Pacific answered every VU

scoring spurt and kept it close.

The Cougars closed a 10-point gap and pulled to within four, then

narrowed an 11-point deficit to five with 3:43 on the clock. Finally,

after VU stretched its lead back to 10 (57-47) with 2:50 to play

after sophomore standout Jennifer Wilcox’s layup, the Cougars

responded again and came within a missed three-point shot at the

buzzer of forcing overtime.

“In the second half, we shot better (12 of 24),” Davis said. “I

don’t think we played very well in the first half, and we certainly

didn’t shoot very well (9 of 26 for 34.6%).”

Wilcox led VU with 13 points and 13 rebounds (11 defensive), while

adding three assists and three steals. She hit a three-pointer in

each half.

Robbin Dittenbir (11 points), Deborah Candelaria and backup

shooting guard Laura Lee (10) finished in double figures for the

winners. Lee sank two three-pointers in the second half -- half of

her attempts -- including one that stopped an Azusa Pacific 6-0

scoring run and triggered a 7-0 spurt for her team.

GSAC Women

Vanguard 58, Azusa Pacific 55

Azusa Pacific -- West 11, Rice 7, Dyk 0, Hudson 11, Dresback 19, Okamoto 3, Regan 2, Heal 2.

3-pt. goals -- Rice 1, Dresback 1, Okamoto 1.

Fouled out -- Dyk.

Technicals -- none.

Vanguard -- Josefsson 5, Mills 6, Wilcox 13, Candelaria 10,

Dittenbir 11, Lenderman 1, Lee 10, McKinney 2.

3-pt. goals -- Mills 2, Wilcox 2, Lee 2.

Fouled out -- none.

Technicals -- none.

Halftime -- 26-26.