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IRVINE, Calif. – Selom Mawugbe registered a 15-point, 10-rebound double-double and blocked three shots Friday afternoon to lead Azusa Pacific to a 72-57 men's basketball win over Seattle Pacific in the GNAC/PacWest Challenge at CU Arena.
 
The neutral-site encounter, hosted by Concordia-Irvine, was the first road outing of the season for SPU and the next five are away from home as well.
 
The Falcons (0-4) remained winless, their longest such season-opening stretch since the 1980-81 squad also lost its first four contests. They are in the midst of a frenetic schedule of five games in nine days that concludes Saturday night.
 
"It's been a really grueling start for us, especially not getting out of the gates as well as we would have liked," said SPU coach Grant Leep. "We just don't have the time in practice to get some of this stuff corrected so we're having to do a lot of it on the fly, whether it's our film study or minor adjustments in shootaround to try to impact the game that way.
 
"It's going to be really nice for us to throw ourselves all in to the game tomorrow, also knowing that we have a good week of practice behind it."
 
A hard-working SPU defensive effort produced 17 Azusa turnovers, eight of them generated by steals. The Falcons parlayed those turnovers directly into 19 points, but that was not enough to offset a 38-29 rebounding disadvantage which enabled APU to unleash eight more shot attempts.

Gavin Long and Divant'e Moffitt each tallied 13 points to pace Seattle Pacific, which also got nine from freshman Shaw Anderson.
 
Sharif Khan collected both of his team-leading two steals in the first half.
 
A sophomore point guard, Moffitt hit 5 of 9 shots from the field and 2 of 4 treys. He distributed two assists without a turnover in 32 minutes.
 
"He's growing a lot as a point guard. He had a really nice ballgame tonight," Leep said. "The biggest thing with Divant'e that we were most proud of tonight was that he didn't turn the ball over. He did a good job of taking care of the ball and initiating the offense for us."
 
Joining Mawugbe in double figures for the Wildcats were Jake Spurgeon with 15 points and Brennan Rymer with 14.
 
The teams were never separated by more than a five-point margin during the opening 15 minutes. There were three ties and eight lead changes during that span.
 
SPU applied a stifling defense that held its opponent without a point for over four minutes last in the first half.
 
The Wildcats committed turnovers on six consecutive possessions, enabling a eight-point run. Moffitt scored three points, on a free throw and runner in the lane, to ignite the surge that turned a one-point deficit into a 31-24 advantage.
 
Anderson concluded the Falcons spree on a 3-pointer with 4:35 left in the half.

 

Leep described what his team was doing well during that period when they surged in front.
 
"We stayed true to our defensive identity. We're starting to understand as a team that it's something that takes a lot of work and a lot of discipline. When we do those things, we are able to make those plays."
 
The Wildcats turned the tables, preventing any more points before halftime while reeling off 11 straight themselves. SPU missed five shots and turned the ball over five times over the final 4:07 to allow Azusa to claim a 35-31 edge at intermission.
 
"We lost a little bit of what we had been doing so well to get the lead in the first place," explained Leep, who attributed Azusa's 15 offensive rebounds as difference-makers.
 
"We would do a pretty good job of getting them to take a contested shot and then they would beat us to an offensive rebound. Against a good time like that, with as many good shooters as they have, when you give up as many offensive rebounds as we did that's just a recipe to give them extra clean looks. Offensive rebounds are such a great time to shoot threes and they hurt us with those tonight."
 
The Wildcats halftime lead was never relinquished, and grew to as many as 15 points during the second half.
 
The closest the Falcons could come was 51-48 with 9:19 remaining after Long made a layup and Mehdi El Mardi grabbed an offensive rebound and put it back through the hoop.
 
Azusa netted the next five points en route to a late 15-5 run that sealed the deal.
 
SPU shot 40 percent for the game (22 of 55) with 5-for-16 accuracy from 3-point range. The Wildcats hurled up nearly twice as many treys, shooting 10-for-29 from distance and 27-for-63 overall for a 43-percent rate.
 
The Falcons men remain in California to play tournament host Concordia-Irvine on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. After that, they have 10 days before the next game, on Nov. 26 at Sonoma State.
 
NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL
Friday, Nov. 15, 2019
CU Arena / Irvine, Calif.
 
Azusa Pacific 72, at Seattle Pacific 57
 
SEATTLE PACIFIC (0-4)
Anderson 4-7 0-0 9, Fullerton 1-4 2-2 5, Cavell 0-5 3-4 3, Moffitt 5-9 1-2 13, Long 6-15 1-3 13, Olsen 2-4 1-4 6, El Mardi 3-6 0-0 6, Paulsen 1-1 0-0 2, Medjo 0-3 0-0 0, Khan 0-0 0-0 0, Parola 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-55 8-15 57.
 
AZUSA PACIFIC (3-1)
Spurgeon 6-10 1-2 15, Mawugbe 6-10 3-5 15, Rymer 5-14 2-3 14, Taufahema 1-8 0-0 3, Bundrant 2-3 0-0 4, West 2-4 2-2 8, Becvar 3-8 0-0 8, Avera 1-5 0-0 3, McBride 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 27-63 8-12 72.
 
Seattle Pacific...............   31   26  -   57
Azusa Pacific.................   35   37  -   72
 
3-point goals--SPU 5-16 (Moffitt 2-4, Olsen 1-1, Anderson 1-1, Fullerton 1-4, Medjo 0-3, Cavell 0-1, El Mardi 0-1, Long 0-1), APU 10-29 (Spurgeon 2-4, Becvar 2-5, West 2-4, Rymer 2-6, Avera 1-5, Taufahema 1-5). Fouled out--SPU-None, APU-Becvar. Rebounds--SPU 29 (El Mardi, Long 6), APU 38 (Mawugbe 10). Assists--SPU 8 (Anderson, Cavell, Moffitt 2), APU 14 (Avera 4). Total fouls--SPU 20, APU 13. Technical fouls--SPU-None, APU-None. A-56.
 
 
Next SPU Men's Basketball Game
GNAC/PacWest Challenge
Seattle Pacific at Concordia-Irvine
Saturday, Nov. 16, 7:30 p.m. PST
CU Arena / Irvine, Calif.