LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Biola's men's basketball team will make its 16th national tournament appearance, earning one of 13 at-large bids to the 2009 Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I Men's Basketball Championship March 18-24, at the Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo.

The Eagles, who posted a 22-9 overall record this season, open the tournament with a tough battle against No. 6 Westminster College, the champions of the Frontier Conference, at 8:45 a.m. (PST) on Thursday, March 19. The Griffins enter the tournament with an impressive mark of 28-4 with victories over four GSAC teams earlier in the season.

Westminster will provide a good challenge to Biola's defensive ability, averaging 76.3 points per game and being held to under 70 points on just four occassions. This is the ninth trip to the national tournament for the Griffins and they are 1-9 all-time at the event. This is the eighth time they have made the field under Coach Tommy Connor. These two teams have met just once before with Biola winning 96-69 on November 16, 2001. 

The winner of the  game advances to the second round to face the winner of the game between Javis Christian (Texas) and No. 11-seed Cumberlands (Ky.). The second-round game is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. (PST) on Friday, March 20.

Biola was squarely on the tournament bubble after falling to California Baptist in the first round of the GSAC tournament. However, with a little bit of luck and some big wins over the course of the season, the Eagles were able to earn one of the final berths in the NAIA Tournament.

Overall, Biola is making its 35th-consecutive postseason appearance and its 16th trip to the NAIA tournament. The Eagles are 19-15 overall in NAIA tourney games and have finished in the top three twice. Despite making 16 trips over the last 30 years, this is Biola's first NAIA tournament trip since the 2004-05 season.

The Championship is a single-elimination tournament featuring 18 automatic qualifiers from 11 Division I affiliated conferences, Association of Independent Institutions (A.I.I.), 1 host berth, and 13 at-large berths, which are determined using the final regular-season rating released today (March 11).

Also making the trip to Kansas City from the Golden State Athletic Conference is regular season champion Fresno Pacific and GSAC tournament champion Azusa Pacific. Concordia University, which finished second in the conference during the regular season, will also make yet another trip.

The Eagles wrapped up the regular season as the best in the NAIA in scoring defense, allowing just 55.93 points per game, and held teams to just under 39 percent shooting. Biola has held six of its
last eight opponents under 56 points and is 17-2 on the season when allowing 56 points or less in a game.

Head Coach Dave Holmquist enters the tournament as one of the winningest coaches in NAIA history, winning 759 games in his career including 723 as Biola's coach. 

Biola is one of  17 teams who did not qualify for last year's event. Rogers State (Okla.) University out of the Sooner Athletic Conference are 30-1 overall and have been ranked No. 1 in the last seven polls. The event has a host as the Heart of America Athletic Conference (HAAC) serves that function. Three teams have qualified from the HAAC: Central Methodist (Mo.), MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) and William Jewell (Mo.). The HAAC was a member of NAIA Division II before this season.

Of the 32 teams, Georgetown (Ky.) is making the most appearances with its 28th and holds the most all-time wins in the Championship with 49 victories. Oklahoma Baptist is making its 21st event and is 48-19 all-time. Defending national champion Oklahoma City did not make this year's qualifiers.

The first 30 games of the Championships will be video-streamed live on the Internet at http://www.watchnaia.com, while the National Championship Game on March 24 at 8:50 p.m. CST will air live nationwide on CBS College Sports Television with Jason Knapp calling the action and Sean Farnham providing color analysis.