Fullerton, CA- After trailing by as many as 17 points in the second quarter, Arizona Christian outscored Hope International by 20 in the second half to pull off the 74-70 comeback win.  Sophomore Jada Willingham fired off a career high 28 points thanks to a career high six three pointers.

The Royals (4-10, 0-5 GSAC) scored the first three points of the evening.  After turning the ball over on their first four possessions, the Firestorm (9-6, 3-1 GSAC) used a three pointer from Senior Courtney Leach to tie the game at 3-3.  HIU moved back in front before Sophomore Makayla Enders dialed in a three pointer of her own for a 6-5 ACU lead.

But Hope International countered with an 11-0 run to control of the rest of the first half. 

Defensively, Arizona Christian could not make many stops as the Royals shot 66.7% from the field and 57.1% from the three point arc in the opening 20 minutes.  For HIU, Emily Terwilliger produced 11 points on 5-6 shooting from the field while Melody Gauthier went 4-5 from three point country.  Willingham was 3-3 from deep to top ACU with nine first half points.

HIU held a 44-28 edge at the break.

Three a half minutes in to the second half, the Royals held a 16 point advantage.  With just 11 seconds left in the third quarter, Hope International still held a comfort ten point lead.

As the game rolled into the fourth quarter and 8:18 remained on the game clock, the score was 62-51 in favor of the Royals.  But the Firestorm answered with an 11-0 run to knot the game at 62-62.  Willingham delivered five of those points while Sophomore Courtney Christmas added four points.

Gauthier hit another three pointer for HIU.  A jumper by Freshman Toni Davis followed by Willingham's final three ball of the night moved ACU back in front.  With 3:35 left, HIU tied the score at 67-67.

ACU allowed just three more points and knocked down their free throws down the stretch to pull out the win.

To put Willingham's six three pointers on eight attempts into perspective, she had only converted six three pointers combined in the first 14 ACU games prior to Thursday night.  Christmas concluded her evening with 17 points after scoring only two points in the first half.  Enders finished her effort with 11 points.  Junior Suzie Castro-Larsen pulled down 11 boards.

Gauthier ended up with 19 points while Terwilliger doubled up with 15 points and 12 rebounds.

Head Coach Odell Berry stated, "We changed our approach in the second half with our press... the girls responded well to our changes and you saw a huge difference in their intensity."

Coach Berry went on to say, "We have a very good team, and we keep trying to tell them that they can be as good as they want to be. Hopefully tonight they start to see that.  We lost two games to Hope last year that we should have won. Win those last season and we might have made playoffs. Big win for our team and very excited to see what lies ahead in next couple weeks."

The Firestorm will continue their Southern California swing with a game at Vanguard on Saturday.  Tip-off is set for 2:00 pm PT/ 3:00 pm AT.  The Royals will have the weekend off before returning to action on Thursday at home against Menlo at 5:30 pm PT.