Azusa, Calif. - The Concordia University Irvine men's basketball team received a big lift from guards Jamel White and Brian Chambers Saturday at Azusa Pacific but ultimately was unable to keep up with the hot-shooting Cougars.  APU finished on fire from three-point land and snapped CUI's seven-game conference winning streak with an 85-68 victory over the visiting Eagles.

White scored a career-high 20 points and has now scored in double figures in eight of his last 12 outings. Chambers added 16 and the duo combined to make five treys.

However, APU shot a blistering 11-for-19 from downtown while the Eagles (11-6, 7-1 PacWest) converted only six of their 23 attempts from long range.  The Cougars also outrebounded CUI 42-26.

"We can learn a lot from this game," added White. "They outrebounded us by 16 so our main focus will be getting better and getting ready for our next conference opponents."

The Cougars (9-6, 6-2 PacWest) opened the game on an 11-2 run.  The Eagles responded with an 11-4 spurt of their own capped off with an acrobatic layup by White.  After a timeout by APU, Brian Chambers then bombed a deep trey to give the Eagles their first lead, 16-15.

After a steal, Jamel White drilled a pull-up three-pointer and the Eagles increased their lead to 23-18 before the next media timeout.

"Something I love about Jamel, he just fights (through adversity) and is a steady rock at all times," said Concordia head coach Ken Ammann.  "He's got no quit in him, no negativity in him and that's why he is so valuable to us."

Chambers led all scorers in the first half with 14 points.  He drained a pair of deep threes to boost the offense early and the Cougars only led by four, 33-29 at the break.

But APU controlled the majority of the final 20 minutes by relentlessly attacking the basket and kicking out for threes.  Darien McClain led all players with 26 points and finished a perfect 10-for-10 from the free throw line.

"The second half they shot a lot of threes and outrebounded us so I think we came out pretty slow the second half," admitted White. "We really didn't want to lose this game and the first time we faced them we won by 20, but we knew it was going to be a tough game from the get go."

Concordia did force 17 APU turnovers which led to 22 points.  Concordia only committed one turnover in the first half and finished with just five for the entire game. 

"We didn't play that well offensively," added Ammann. "We did take care of the ball – that was the one thing we did really well which kept us in the game.  We win and lose on the defensive end but we didn't get done the things we talked about."

Kyle Gray never stopped hustling and chipped in with eight points and three steals.  Geoff Gerlach added eight points and Rob Taylor added seven points and seven boards.

Concordia returns to action on Tuesday, Jan. 15 at Hawai'i Hilo.  The Eagles will play three straight games on the islands to close out a four-game road swing before their next home contest which will be on Thursday, Jan. 24 at 7:30 p.m. against Academy of Art.

For the full Concordia University Irvine men's basketball schedule, click here.