Sometimes a team just has your number during a given season and unfortunately for Biola, they had to face the one team that had just given them fits all year in the first round of the GSAC playoffs.

The fourth-seeded Sea Lions from Point Loma had just enough to stop a fierce rally from fifth-seeded Biola to move on to the semifinals Saturday at Hope International with an 81-76 win in San Diego Thursday night.

At 19-12 overall, this undoubtedly stops a streak in which Biola had reached the NAIA national tournament in eight of the last nine years. It is also the first time since the 1994-1995 season that the Eagles have not reached the 20-win plateau.

Point Loma (18-10) sweeps three games from the Eagles this season and moves on to face the reigning GSAC champ Azusa Pacific at 7:30 Saturday night at Hope International. The Cougars defeated eighth-seeded California Baptist by eight while second-seeded San Diego Christian pulled out a one-point thriller over seventh-seeded Concordia and third-seeded Vanguard needed overtime to move past sixth-seeded Westmont.

Biola shot 53.1% on the night and outrebounded the Sea Lions 32-26 but 16 turnovers led to 21 Pt. Loma points where the Eagles could only net 11 points on the 12 turnovers from the Sea Lions.

The Sea Lions again looked inside to center Tim Kruge to lead the way, and lead he did with his game-high 21 points and seven rebounds. In all, Kruge's effort led Point Loma to a huge 38-22 margin for points in the paint.

When Kruge needed a break, which wasn't very often, the Sea Lions looked to the outside shooting of guard Matt Benson and Xavier Lopez who combined to score 35 points and hit seven three's.

Casey Ortiz rounded out the double figure scorers for the Sea Lions with 12 points while also dishing out a game-high eight assists.

Biola trailed by eight with just over three minutes left and whittled the lead to just two with a 6-0 run over the next two minutes but the Sea Lions made three of four free throws and Spencer Foster and Brandon Warner each missed game-tying three-point jumpers to help Point Loma escape with the win.

Warner led Biola with 17 points and seven rebounds while Foster added 14. Sophomore Danny Jones continued his late-season improvement with 12 points and six boards in 23 minutes off the bench while senior Paul Guerrero ends the night with ten points as well.