Basketball (W)

1/19/10- Royals No Answer For Middle

Fullerton, CA- The Royals could not control the inside size of Azusa Pacific on Tuesday night and fell 71-56.  Sophomore Lauren Salazar had a solid game with team highs in points (14), rebounds (5), assists (4), and steals (3).

The Cougars (14-4, 7-1 GSAC) opened the scoring but the Royals (6-12, 1-7 GSAC) answered with four different players scoring to eventually take a 9-5 lead.  Senior Sarah Nylander hit the big shot as she drained a three pointer to give the Royals their first lead.

After APU came back to tie the score Senior Kendra James hit a jumper to give HIU back the lead. But it was short lived as a three pointer by the Cougars put them back on top… for good.

By the break, no player in the game had reached the double figure mark but the Cougars had three with seven points versus just one with seven points (Senior Sara Lycans-Roy) for the Royals.  APU led 32-22 at the half.

Though the Cougars’ two deep front line had a solid first half against the Royals’ undersized front line, they were just getting warmed up.  After the break, the Royals especially did not have an answer for Amber Williams who finished the game with 12 points and 15 rebounds.  Though she had 9 rebounds in the opening half, she did not have a single point on the scoreboard at the break.

The Royals actually shot well in the second half knocking down 44.8% of their shots but they just could clog up the middle enough.  When all was said and done, the APU “bigs” combined for 39 points and 27 rebounds.

Lauren Salazar dropped in 10 of her 14 points in the second half on the strength of two made three pointers.  James added 7 of her 9 points in the final half as well.

On Saturday, the Royals will travel down to El Cajon to square off with San Diego Christian.  Game time has been pushed up to 2:00 pm.

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