San Diego, CA- A 22 point swing in Saturday's game required some last minute heroics by #19 Arizona Christian to pull out their 74-72 win over San Diego Christian.  Junior Chris Sterling scored a game high 21 points but the inside presence of Seniors Mike Navar (16 points, 12 rebounds) and Jackson Helms (15 points, 9 rebounds) may have been the difference in the game.

The Firestorm (20-5, 8-4 GSAC) came out firing on all cylinders as they needed just over four minutes to build a 12-0 advantage.  Sterling recorded half of the first 12 points.

After seeing their lead shrink down to six points, ACU quickly moved back ahead to a 16 point cushion with the final time coming at 4:15 remaining in the half.  But as a foreshadowing of things to come in the second half, the Hawks (10-12, 3-9 GSAC) closed out the half on a 13-5 run to make the halftime score 41-35.

Helms had a big first half with 12 points and six rebounds.  Nobody else in the game had more than eight points or five rebounds (which both happened to be Sterling).  Navar also concluded the half with eight points.

With 12:44 remaining in the game, Arizona Christian held a 57-47 edge.  But a 16-0 streak by San Diego Christian in four plus minutes moved them ahead by six.

As the game wound under 3:30, SDCC held a 70-69 lead.

Sterling answered with about a minute to play and flipped the lead to 71-70 in favor of the Firestorm.  But the Hawks had the upset in mind when their leading scorer Shayne Travers (17 points) converted on the other end to put the Hawks on top 72-71.

Down to 19 seconds remaining with the score the same, Sterling missed both free throw opportunities for the tie and/or lead.  But Helms boxed out to perfection and rebounded the second missed free throw and banked home the game winner while being fouled.  Helms tacked on the free throw and the Firestorm survived two attempts in the closing seconds to hold on for the win.

ACU won the rebounding effort by a margin of 47-32.  On the offensive glass, the edge was 15-6 in favor of ACU who turned those boards into 23 second chance points versus just seven second chance points for SDCC.

Head Coach Jeff Rutter commented, "Any win on the road is a good one.  This is the second straight game we've set the tone defensively.  We really did a nice job making their two best players work hard to get shots.  English finished with one field goal and Dunklin had an inefficient 15 points (on 18 shot attempts).  San Diego did a great job battling back. We showed some toughness after San Diego's big run and got the stops we needed to win the game."

Rutter went on to say, "Chris was outstanding tonight. He was very efficient on the offensive end and did a nice job on English.  Mike and Jackson were great tonight as well.  Both owned the paint and made big plays for us down the stretch."

The win locked up a spot for Arizona Christian in the upcoming GSAC playoffs.

On Tuesday, Arizona Christian will host GSAC leading Biola as ACU tries to move up in their GSAC tournament seeding while also attempting to deny the Eagles moving closer to claiming the GSAC season championship.  The men will tip at 7:30 pm (AT)/ 6:30 pm (PT).