BOX SCORE

LA MIRADA, Calif. — Ryan Read's three-point barrage keyed a big second-half run as No. 3-ranked Concordia University dug itself out of a five-point hole and cruised to a 72-58 win over Biola University in a Golden State Athletic Conference game on Saturday night at Chase Gymnasium.

Concordia, which entered the game ranked No. 3 in the latest NAIA National Poll, improves to 15-1 on the season and 6-1 in GSAC play. Biola drops to 10-7 and 2-5 in conference action after suffering its third-straight loss.

Concordia came out firing in the first half and jumped out to a quick 11-4 lead just three minutes into the game. Concordia still held an eight-point lead at 24-16 with 5:14 to go before Biola used a 10-0 run over the next four minutes and went up 26-24 on a Luke Duperron three-pointer with 43 seconds to go. Concordia was able to knot the score at 26-26 at halftime on a putback dunk by Chris Minardo.

In the second, it looked as though Biola might pull off the upset as a pair of free throws by Larry Tieu gave the team a 36-31 lead with 14:46 remaining. But Read took the game over for Concordia, hitting four three-pointers and scoring 15 of his game-high 21 points over the next seven minutes to key a 22-3 run which turned a five-point deficit into a 14-point lead.

Biola would close the gap to eight on a number of occasions down the stretch, but Concordia hit all 10 of its free throws in the final two minutes–after converting on just 4-of-11 in the previous 38 minutes–to put the game away.

Biola was led by Danny Jones, who scored 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting from the field and also had seven rebounds. Marlon King added 13 points and five assists.

The turnovers proved costly for Biola as its 17 turnovers were converted into 21 points by Concordia. CUI had just 11 turnovers leading to 10 Biola points.

Biola returns to action on Tuesday (Jan. 22), hosting GSAC foe Fresno Pacific University at 7:30 p.m. in Chase Gymnasium.