Costa Mesa, CA- A balanced offense and 48 points in the paint powered Arizona Christian past Vanguard 84-70 on Saturday.  The win secured the fourth seed for the Firestorm in the upcoming GSAC Tournament.  Senior Bobby Gray scored 17 points while giving out seven assists.  Senior Sharif Watson had a double-double of 15 points and 13 rebounds.

The Lions (18-10, 7-9 GSAC), who had already locked up the sixth, came out as the hot shooting team as they drained their first three shots including two three pointers and quickly built an 8-0 lead.

Head Coach Jeff Rutter stated, "Vanguard is a very good team and this is a tough place to play.  They came out shooting really well.  Our guys played with a lot of poise and were able to withstand each run that Vanguard made."

Down 10-3, the Firestorm (22-7, 10-6 GSAC) slowly started to chip away.  With 12:13 remaining in the first half, ACU used an 11-0 run to turn a 17-12 deficit into a 23-17 lead.  Every one of their made baskets during that stretch came in the paint with four different scorers dropping in buckets.

That stretch also featured the only tie of the game as ACU would remain in front the rest of the afternoon.

At the break, Arizona Christian found themselves up 37-31.  While two players from VUSC had accounted for 22 of their 31 points, ACU used a balance attack of nine different players scoring topped by seven points for Senior Jackson Helms.

With eight minutes to play, the Lions had shrunk the Firestorm lead to just three.  Up 67-62 with six and a half minutes to play, ACU locked VUSC on 62 points for the next three plus minutes and pushed out to a 14 point lead to take final control of the game.

In the end, four in double figures (Gray- 17 points, Watson- 15 points, Helms- 15 points, and Junior Chris Sterling- 13 points) and winning the rebound battle 42-32 gave ACU the win.  Making 27-34 free throws (Gray 9-9 at the line, Sterling 7-7) played a key role in the win as well.  In all, everyone who played for ACU scored at least one point.

For Vanguard, Jaamon Echols finished with a game high 29 points.

Rutter commented, "We played really well tonight. We've been talking a lot about our response to adversity particularly on the road, and I think we did a great job of that tonight."

In his closing remarks, Rutter added, "We are excited to head into the post season playing our best basketball.  There are six really good teams left in what should be a great GSAC tourney."

The win for Arizona Christian and loss by Westmont locked the Firestorm into the four spot and the Warriors into the fifth spot.  The teams will meet on Friday at Hope International in the first round of the GSAC tournament with tip-off scheduled for 7:30 pm (PT)/ 8:30 pm (AT).  The winner will advance to play top seeded Biola on Saturday at HIU at 7:30 pm (PT)/ 8:30 pm (AT).