Phoenix, AZ- On Saturday, Arizona Christian exploded out of the gate for a 19-0 lead and turned away Hope International 92-75.  Junior Courtney Christmas went for 25 points and 9 rebounds.  Sophomore Toni Davis added 17 points.

Out of the gate, the Firestorm (19-6, 8-4 GSAC) nailed eight of their first nine shots while the Royals (18-10, 5-7 GSAC) missed their first nine shots.  During the 19-0 start, Junior Makayla Enders delivered nine of those points.  The lead grew to as large as 21 points before ACU ended the quarter up 27-10.

ACU duplicated their 27 point effort in the second quarter to hold a 54-34 edge at the break.

Christmas accounted for 14 points on 6-9 shooting in the first 20 minutes.  Enders was at 11 points.  ACU shot 59% from the floor in the first half.

Quarter number three saw the Royals make a comeback bid as they closed within eight at the 1:48 mark left in the period.  But a three pointer from Christmas pushed Arizona Christian back up by double digits headed to the fourth.

In the final quarter, the score would not get any closer than 11 points.

Behind the 25 from Christmas and 17 from Davis, Enders recorded 15 points with Junior Jac Moody going for 13 points and nine rebounds.

For the Royals, Freshman Emma Forel produced 19 points and 12 rebounds.  Junior Rhiana Dougan added 18 points (16 came in the first half).

Head Coach Odell Berry stated, "We had another great team win today.  We won the battle of the boards, had 18 assists, and five players in double figures.  Hope International is a very scrappy, competitive team with a great post and very good perimeter shooters. Fortunately, we had a good shooting day and were pretty scrappy ourselves.  Now we take our shooting show on the road to meet up with Menlo and William Jessup to close out the regular season."

If the regular season ended today, the Firestorm and Royals would face each other in the first round of the GSAC Tournament which will be hosted at ACU on March 2, 3, and 5.  Both teams have two games remaining and could still see some movement in the standings.

Next week, the Firestorm will make their Northern California GSAC trip.  On Thursday, ACU will be at Menlo for a 6:30 pm AT/ 5:30 pm PT game.  HIU will finish the regular season at home hosting The Master's on Thursday and Westmont on Saturday.