BOX SCORE
SAN DIEGO --- For the third time this season, Biola defeated an NAIA Top 25 team, taking down No. 11 Point Loma Nazarene 68-63 in a GSAC game on Tuesday night at Golden Gymnasium in San Diego.
The Eagles snap a three-game losing streak and improve to 5-3 on the season and 1-2 in GSAC play. The Sea Lions fall to 3-3 overall and 1-2 in the conference. The Biola victory was the third win in four tries this season against NAIA top-25 teams having defeated No. 5 Lewis-Clark State and No. 16 Westminster. The lone loss came on Saturday as the Eagles fell by three to No. 2 Vanguard.
The victory was also Biola's first at Golden Gymnasium since the 2004 season and just the second in the past 10 years. The Eagles entered the night having defeated Point Loma just once in the last 11 meetings between the two.
Senior forward
Megann Alberts led the Eagle attack with 12 points and added nine rebounds as one of four Biola players to reach double figures in the game. Sophomore forward
Jessilyn Conicelli added 11 points and a game-high 14 rebounds for the Eagles.
Biola started off the game strong, jumping out to a quick 6-2 lead. However, that would be the Eagles' last lead for a while as Point Loma came right back with an eight point run and would quickly stretch the lead to eight at 17-9. Biola rallied back with a 10-2 run to tie the game at 19-19 only to see the Sea Lions go back up by eight. The rest of the half would be a seesaw battle as Point Loma would shoot up by a handful of points with the Eagles fighting back to tie the score.
Biola trailed by 36-32 at halftime and continued the seesaw battle into the second half, falling behind 49-43 on a three-pointer Pernilla Hanson with 14:54 remaining. But the Eagles finally snatched the lead back as sophomore center
Christina Barclay hit back-to-back shots in the lane followed by an
Elise Paty three to make it 50-49 with 11:46 left.
The score remained close down the stretch with Biola leading 61-60 with under two minutes to play when freshman guard Charrise Reese hit her first shot of the game--a deep three-pointer as the shot clock expired. The clutch triple gave the Eagles a 64-60 lead with 1:40 to go. After a three by Kaitlyn Trotter with 29 seconds left closed the gap to one, Point Loma was forced to foul and sent Alberts to the line for a one-and-one with 13 ticks left. She drained both shots to stretch the lead back to three and an off-balance three-point attempt by Colleen Planeta on the other end rattled off, sealing the Sea Lions fate. Reese would add a pair of free throws with under a second left to provide the winning margin.
The Eagles continued to put on an aerial show, draining nine three-pointers in the game. Biola has hit 51 shots from beyond the arc this season and is averaging just over six made three's a game. Paty had three of those three-pointers on four attempts, finishing with nine points while fellow junior guard
Chelsea De Luca added three of her own and tallied 11 points in the contest.
Inside, sophomore center
Christina Barclay recorded a season-high 10 points, hitting 5-of-6 shots on the day and pulling down three boards.
Liah Ector led all scorers with 17 points for the Sea Lions and added eight rebounds in the losing effort. Planeta scored 14 points but hit just 6-of-16 shots and failed to connect on four three-point attempts.
"There are still some rough patches to smooth out. The girls played very well out there tonight," said Biola Assistant Coach Bethany Miller. "There are still some rough patches to smooth out, but the team is really beginning to play together and that's encouraging. Chelsea and Elise both shot really well and Christina did a great job inside for us. They really couldn't stop her when she went in there in the second half."
The Eagles take a short break before returning to action next. Biola's next game comes on Wednesday, Dec. 17 against Ashford University (Iowa) at 5:30 p.m. in Chase Gymnasium.
