COSTA MESA -- Vanguard women's basketball had its Pacific West title hopes dented on Thursday night.  Azusa Pacific scored the first basket, but was not close to the lead until the fourth quarter.  Tied at 56-56 after regular, the OT frames went back and forth.  The first ended without a winner, but the Cougars made a pair of threes in the second stanza to snag a 74-73 victory.  The Lions are now tied with APU at the top of the standings, though APU holds the tiebreaker .  VU dropped to 12-3 overall and 8-2 in the PacWest, while APU improved to 12-5, 8-2.
 
What Happened?  VU scored 16 points in each of the first three quarters and outscored the Cougars 16-9 over the first 7:30 of the opening frame.  Down 2-0, Jaryn Madsen had the first seven Lion points, as she buried a three and converted two layups to push Vanguard ahead.  Micaela Hanning then splashed down with a trey, and a Kaylee Byon floater got the guard on the board.  APU closed up some over the final two minutes, but a 16-11 lead put the Lions in a good spot after one frame.  VU shot 40% from the floor in the first and held APU to 27.8% rate.
 
The Cougars got the gap down to five over the opening four minutes of the second period, but a Byon pullup jumper and an Emma Schaaf layup sent VU ahead 22-13.  Two minutes then elapsed before Shayla O'Neil banked in a jumper to up the edge to 11, and both teams then exploded for a hail storm of points.  Halle Si'i and Aryanna Hudson sunk treys for VU, helping the Lions to a 32-18 lead at halftime.  The Cougars increased their shooting rate from the field to 46.7%, while Vanguard had a 7-for-14 mark, including a 2-for-2 line from deep.
 
Out of the break, the Cougars slashed the advantage to six points over the opening three minutes (34-28), but the Blue and Gold retaliated.  Madsen sniped two shots from downtown, and O'Neil grabbed a rebound and went coast-to-coast to finish off a 9-0 counter punch.  The lead stabilized for most of the period, though a triple with 33 seconds left brought the count down to 48-39.  Despite the response, VU lost the scoring race in the frame 21-16, though the team had a 54.5% shooting rate in the third, with Azusa Pacific at a 42.8% clip.
 
The fourth interval started with five unanswered Cougar points, but Schaaf made a rebuttal with a three-pointer to put the lead at 51-44.  But that lunge was not good enough, as the Cougars chopped those seven points off the scoreboard to tie things at 51-all with 5:09 left.  Akilah Kubi made hay off an offensive rebound, as her layup gave the Lions some second-chance points and a two-point edge.  A Byon free throw put the lead back at three (54-51) with 2:51 to go, yet an APU trey tied things again. 

With just over two minutes to go, the Lions forced a turnover, and off an inbounds play, VU fed the rock to Schaaf and she finished through the lane to put Vanguard ahead 56-54.  Hanning and Byon made steals over the next minute, and Schaaf had a huge block with 21 seconds remaining, giving the Blue and Gold the belief that victory was at hand.  But a turnover led to a fast break layup by Audrey Sayoc with nine seconds left to tie things at 56-56.  Vanguard shot 18.75% in the fourth quarter.
 
Byon and Schaaf made short-range shots to put the Lions up by four (60-56) after two minutes had gone by in overtime. But this was countered by a three by APU's Lauren Jones, which sparked a 6-0 run.  Trailing for the first time since the opening moments, Schaaf made free throws to tie the score at 62-62 before making a layup to give the Lions a lead with 20 seconds to go.  But Sayoc was in a groove and made a close-range shot with six seconds left to force another five minutes.
 
Sayoc did most of the damage in the second OT by making all three of her shots, including a three-pointer, all of which came over the first 2:15 of the frame.  Hanning did her best to counter, with her triple with 1:56 to go knotting the score at 69-all.  But APU scored the next five to mostly secure the victory.  Byon made a layup with 10 ticks left, the Blue and Gold forced an APU turnover four seconds later.  But the Cougars were smart and fouled Byon on the pass, and her two free throws only got the Lions to within one, and time expired soon thereafter.
 
The Lions shot 42.4% from the field in the game, with APU shooting 36.4%.  The Cougars had a 12-8 lead in three pointers, and Vanguard had a 44-37 advantage in rebounds.  Schaaf led the Blue and Gold with 17 points and tied Kubi for the team lead with eight rebounds.  Madsen and Hanning had 13 points apiece, with Madsen going 3-for-7 from downtown.  Byon had a game-high six assists and registered 11 points.  On the APU side of the ledger, Sayoc had a game-high 26 points, and Jones went 7-for-13 from beyond the arc for 24 points.
 
What was Said?  "Tough loss," said Head Coach Russ Davis.  "They got hot, and they really were confident.  We gave up 56 points after halftime, and on the season, we give up 52 in an entire game on average.  Hats off to APU.  They earned it and worked hard for it.  We need to learn from it and bounce back, as we have another great opponent coming in here on Saturday."
 
What's Next?  The chase for the lead of the PacWest continues, as Point Loma comes to the Freed Center Saturday for a 2:00 p.m. contest.