IRVINE, Calif. >> The top-seeded team in the PacWest Conference men’s basketball tournament prevented Brigham Young-Hawaii from getting the chance to defend its tournament championship.

Azusa Pacific, which won the regular-season title, overwhelmed the fifth-seeded Seasiders in a 92-75 rout on Friday night in the semifinals at Concordia University.

The Cougars (22-7) will face third-seeded Cal Baptist in Saturday’s championship, thus ensuring that a school from Southern California will win the men’s tournament for the first time since it started in 2013.

“It was a tough night,” BYUH coach Ken Wagner said. “We felt we had a chance to win, but we had to play our best.”

Yet the Seasiders (15-12) gave Azusa Pacific early trouble. BYUH used a 10-2 spree to turn a 15-10 deficit into a 20-17 lead with 11:52 left in the first half. Ian Harward scored four points and grabbed two rebounds during the spurt.

But APU responded with a 13-1 blitz to move ahead 30-21 with 8:13 before halftime. The Cougars used their defense to create offense: 10 of their 13 points resulted from turnovers. Petar Kutlesic led the surge with eight points and a steal.

The Seasiders finished with 16 turnovers, which APU used to score 22 points. Providing motivation was BYUH’s 84-61 win over the Cougars on Feb. 23, when they forced just eight turnovers.

“We were just given a task, which was to compete crazy on defense,” APU guard Bruce English said. “The rest would follow suit. The defense was where we got our energy, and it just carried over to the offense.”

That defense also defused the Seasiders’ transition game. BYUH failed to score any points on the fast break.

“When we push the ball really hard and run that score up, that’s when we’re successful,” said Harward, who finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds. “But they took away a lot of those options. It was just tough for us to find that rhythm, find that groove.”

BYUH narrowed its deficit to 63-57 with 13:01 to play, but LyDell Cardwell applied the coup de grace. Cardwell came off the Cougars’ bench to score eight points within 25 seconds, expanding the margin to 71-57 with 12:16 left. APU led by as many as 21 points.

“Defensively, we really struggled,” Wagner said. “Even then, we hung around a long time. If we kicked it in gear, we could’ve gotten a little momentum.”

Scott Friel added 14 points, Justin Yamzon contributed 13 points and Cory Lange scored 12 points for the Seasiders.

English and Kutlesic each scored 21 points, with Kutlesic grabbing 13 rebounds and blocking three shots. APU’s Connor Peterson added 18 points and six assists.