by LAIE, Hawaii – BYU-Hawaii women’s basketball fell 88-66 to Azusa Pacific on Tuesday’s senior night in the Cannon Activities Center.
Senior Celeste Claw (Navajo Nation) led all players and with a career-high 24 points. Kjirsten Nelson finished her final home game as a Seasider (11-13, 8-11 PacWest) with a double-double of 12 points and 11 rebounds. Valerie Nawahine ended her last home game with 10 points and eight rebounds. Other seniors Jiashan Cui and Emily Nelson added three assists and six rebounds, respectively.
Kelly Hardeman led the Cougars (23-3, 17-1 PacWest) with 23 points and seven rebounds.
BYU-Hawaii shot 33.9 percent from the field, while Azusa Pacific hit 47.2 percent of its shots. The Seasiders outrebounded the Cougars 52-33.
Seesaw scoring started out the first quarter until five-unanswered points by the Seasiders gave them a 12-11 lead with 4:43 in the period. The Cougars took a small lead, but BYU-Hawaii’s 7-1 run ended the quarter 19-17 in its favor.
Joelle Tampien hit a shot behind the arc to send Azusa Pacific on a 7-0 run, giving them the 26-21 edge with 6:31 remaining in the second. Another 7-point streak for the Cougars put them ahead by 12 at 39-27 with 2:27 to go in the half.
The Seasiders rallied with a 7-0 run of their own, but Cyndie Jones made a 3-pointer in the last seconds to send Azusa Pacific into the locker room ahead 42-34 at the break.
Four-consecutive points by Hardeman in the first minutes of the third quarter made it a 46-34 game before the teams began to trade points again. A shot by Nawahine with 4:24 remaining closed it to single digits at 51-42. The Cougars answered with a 10-1 run featuring two 3-pointers to pull away at 64-45 heading into the final quarter of play.
Azusa Pacific hit again on back-to-back shots from distance to extend its lead to 78-49 with seven minutes left in the game. With four minutes remaining, Claw made consecutive 3-pointers to bring the score to 83-58.
BYU-Hawaii finishes season play on Saturday at Hawaii Pacific at 2 p.m. HST. Live stats will be available online.
