Phoenix, AZ- Despite playing shorthanded, Arizona Christian put forth an exceptional effort on Tuesday evening against Hope International before coming up just short 80-79 on a last second free throw.  Senior Alyssa Gruber topped a balanced ACU scoring attack with 18 points.

Playing with just a rotation of seven players for various reasons, the Firestorm (9-10, 1-5 GSAC) started fast.  Freshman Moana Hala'ufia spearheaded ACU jumping out to 17-6 lead as she scored six of the first eight points.  Gruber added five points including her first three pointer of the game during that burst to an 11 point edge.

The Royals (9-6, 2-4 GSAC) held the Firestorm scoreless for three and a half minutes to ultimately tie the score at 17-17.  Freshman Jada Willingham gave ACU back a two point cushion just before the end of the quarter.

Quarter number two saw Arizona Christian push back out to a six point lead.  Gruber hit another three to reach that margin.

But HIU outscored ACU 14-6 the remainder of the quarter to hold a 35-33 halftime edge.

Gruber put together a nice first half as she scored 10 points in the first 20 minutes.

Senior Jazmin Mays hit a pair of free throws about 30 seconds into the second half to create a 35-35 tie.  However, Hope International took off and jumped out to a 14 point lead twice with the final time coming at 4:48 remaining in the third quarter.

Game over?  Not quite.

Gruber and Mays scored five points each to help ACU start to cut into their deficit.   A steal and fast break layup from Freshman Courtney Christmas made it a three point game in the closing seconds of the third quarter.

Down five at the final quarter break, a string of four three pointers- which included making a three on three straights possessions- one by Freshman Makayla Enders, two from Christmas, and one by Gruber forced a tie at 68-68 with 6:48 to play.

Over the course of the next six plus minutes, the teams play out to 79-79 tie as Hala'ufia notched two free throws to create that score.

With overtime looming, Arizona Christian was called for a foul with about one second remaining on the clock.  HIU's Marissa Rendon missed the first throw but made the second to give Hope International the win.

Christmas scored 13 of her 17 points in the second half before fouling out.  Hala'ufia and Willingham reached 12 points by game's end.  Enders was the fifth Firestorm in double figures as she added 11 points.

Hala'ufia grabbed a game high eight rebounds.

Head Coach Odell Berry stated, "I was very impressed with the effort our girls gave tonight.  We were missing one of our regular starters and everyone stepped up their game a notch.  Hope is a big, physical team and I was proud of the way we battled on the boards and all over the court.  This kind of effort is going to win us a lot of games in the near future."

On Saturday, the Firestorm will host Vanguard with a start time of 2:00 pm AT/ 1:00 pm PT.