BOX SCORE
LA MIRADA, Calif. — Samantha Cardeno drained a deep three-pointer at the buzzer to give Fresno Pacific a 71-70 win over Biola on Tuesday night in a Golden State Athletic Conference game at Chase Gymnasium in La Mirada.
The victory gives the Sunbirds their first GSAC victory as they improve to 8-11 overall and 1-8 in conference. The Eagles drop to 5-12 on the season and 2-6 in GSAC.
Biola had five players score in double-figures led by forward Megann Alberts, who scored 12 points—all in the second half. Summer Matthews and Jenna French each added 11 points.
Fresno Pacific received a game-high 21 points from Bricali Cooley, who shot 8-for-11 from the field including going 4-of-6 from beyond the arc. Overall, the Sunbirds hit 13 three-pointers, recording 10 of them in the second half, and shot 53 percent from the field for the game.
The game's final two minutes proved to be as exciting as any Biola's played this season. Fresno Pacific tied the score at 68-68 with 1:46 to play as Cooley hit one of two free throws. On the next possession, Alberts was fouled and also hit one of two to give the Eagles a 69-68 lead with 1:28 remaining.
Each team was unable to score on its next possession, leaving the Sunbirds with a chance to take the lead with under 30 seconds to go. But Alberts stripped the ball from Jessica Mazza as she drove in the lane, then was fouled immediately. She hit the front-end of the one-and-one, but missed the second shot setting up the FPU heroics.
After a pair of timeouts, the Sunbirds got the ball into the hands of Cardeno, who banked in a deep three-pointer at the buzzer to give Fresno Pacific the win.
Biola got off to a slow start in the game, falling behind by 10 points nine minutes into the contest. However, the Eagles slowly chipped away at the lad and managed to tie the game at 29-29 at halftime.
In the second half, Biola briefly took a four-point lead at 36-32 two minutes into the half. But Fresno hit a barrage of three-pointers and stretched the lead back to as many as seven at 59-52 at the halfway point. But the Eagles' freshman led the team on a 12-3 run to give the team a 64-62 lead with 4:50 to go.
French led the freshman reserves with 11 points while Jessilyn Conicelli and Christina Barclay added 10 points each.
Despite Fresno's barrage of three-pointers in the second half, Biola was able to hang close thanks to 63 percent shooting of their own, converting on 17-of-27 shots in the half.
The Eagles return to action on Saturday (Jan. 26) when they travel to Costa Mesa to face No. 3 Vanguard University at 5:30 p.m. Vanguard dropped its first GSAC game in over three years, falling by 21 points at Point Loma Nazarene on Tuesday.
