Fullerton, Calif.  - Twice IS nice! The OUAZ men's basketball team ran its Golden State Athletic Conference postseason tournament winning streak to six in capturing their second straight conference tournament title, beating Hope International 71-69 on its home floor. The win gives the Spirit the automatic berth into the NAIA Men's Basketball Tournament which begins on March 7th. The tournament field will be announce on Tuesday, March 2.

Now 21-9 overall, OUAZ was led by all-conference pick Keshawn Bruner who scored 20 points and hit 8-of-11 free throws, including six in the final 90 seconds. Semifinal star Alex Villi added 13 more and finished his tournament run with 13 three's.

Maybe it was a slight lag from the win over No. 2 Arizona Christian the night before but the Spirit struggled early against Hope, missing their first five shots. They finally found their groove, took their first lead (17-15) at 11:37, held an eight-point advantage (25-17) two minutes later and fought off a Royal charge to lead  37-33 heading into the locker room at halftime.

The lead changed hands early in the second half until Villi nailed a three at 14:10, giving OUAZ a six-point lead. That lead would grow to eight (53-45) before Hope put together a 13-0 run to go up 58-53 with 6:42 to go. The Spirit would answer with a 5-0 run of their own to tie the game 90-seconds later, only to have Hope rebuild a lead (64-60) with 2:30 left on the clock. From there, OUAZ scored its final 11 points from charity stripe and held Hope to just two points until a last-second three dropped at the buzzer.

Points Of Interest
With nine rebounds against Hope, Devin Collins is now averaging 10.0 rpg over the last five games….He has posted 11 rebounds in three of the five games…He has seven double-doubles this season…For the last three games, Bruner is averaging 19 points while hitting 56% from the floor and 85% (23-27) from the line…What a tournament for Villi - 17.7 ppg and 46.4% from 3PT range (13-28).