Point Loma Nazarene’s men’s basketball team had a mission Saturday: beat Academy of Art and take first place in the PacWest Conference.

Mission accomplished.

Guard Coby Barnes scored 20 points and coach Justin Downer’s defense was suffocating as the Sea Lions (12-4, 5-1 PacWest) seized control of the conference race by completing a season sweep of their toughest competition 74-64 at Golden Gymnasium.

PLNU and Academy of Art split last season’s conference title and were selected first and second, respectively, in this year’s PacWest preseason poll.

“I thought we stayed connected defensively, rebounded well and moved the ball on offense,” Downer said. “That is how we want to play. That is a really good offensive rebounding team and  I thought our guards boxed out on the weak side and kept them off the boards. That was big for us.”

The Sea Lions won the first matchup in San Francisco 58-53 on Dec. 7 and effectively ran a replay. Zack Paulsen and Barnes closed the first half with a pair of 3-pointers after the Urban Knights (8-5, 4-2 PacWest) took their first lead of the game.

PLNU has enjoyed balanced scoring all season. Barnes was one of four Sea Lions to score in double digits on Saturday; Paulsen added 20 points, Wynton Brown chipped in 11 and Tyce Paulsen had 10.

Pierce Davis scored eight points off the bench, and high-flying Andrew Hommes — the younger brother of former PLNU All-American Daulton Hommes, who is now playing professionally in France — scored six.

The Sea Lions shot 44.4% from the field and 36.8% from 3-point range while holding the visitors to 39% shooting.

Point Loma also dominated the boards 39-27 and forced 16 turnovers despite potential PacWest player of the year and All American Rodney Munson’s 20 points.

PLNU will heads to Hawaii to face Hawaii Hilo (8-5, 1-2 PW) on Thursday and Hawaii Pacific (7-5, 2-1 PW) on Saturday.

Tritons rout Cal State Fullerton

Led by Aniwania Tait-Jones’ 24 points and Hayden Gray’s 23 points, UC San Diego (13-2, 3-0 Big West) cruised to a 90-51 win at Cal State Fullerton (5-11, 0-4 Big West) on Saturday night.

The Tritons are ranked 10 in the latest Mid-Major Top 25 poll and have won a Division I program record 11 straight games. They host Cal Poly Thursday night at LionTree Arena.

Toreros fall to Oregon State in Corvallis

Michael Rataj’s 18 points helped Oregon State defeat USD 81-54 on Saturday night.

Rataj also contributed 10 rebounds for the Beavers (12-4, 2-1 West Coast Conference). Nate Kingz scored 15 points while going 4 of 7 from the floor, including 3 for 5 from 3-point range, and 4 for 5 from the line. Liutauras Lelevicius went 5 of 6 from the field (3 for 4 from 3-point range) to finish with 13 points.

Tony Duckett finished with 12 points for the Toreros (4-12, 1-2). Joey Chammaa added 10 points and four steals for San Diego. Kjay Bradley Jr. also had nine points.

Includes information from The Associated Press.