FULLERTON, Calif. --- Sophomore Jennifer French continued her assault on Hope International, pouring in 18 points to lead Biola to an 87-52 win over the Royals in a GSAC game Tuesday night at Darling Pavilion in Fullerton.

The Eagles improve to 13-5 on the season and wrap up the first half of conference play in sole possession of fourth place at 6-4. To put that in perspective, Biola has only one six GSAC games in each of the last three seasons and has not won more since winning 11 in 2003-04. Hope drops to 1-17 overall and are still winless at 0-10 in the conference.

French scored 18 points to lead all scorers, going 8-of-12 from the field, adding five rebounds three assists and three steals. It was two points off her career-high of 20 which came against Hope International when Biola last faced the Royals in February of 2008. In just the seventh game of her career, she scored eight points in just 14 minutes at Hope in December of 2007.

She was one of three Eagles to reach double-figures as junior Chelsea De Luca and sophomore Jessilyn Conicelli each recorded 11 points with senior Megann Alberts adding 10. 

The Eagles wasted little time getting out to a big lead, opening up a 21-2 advantage just over seven minutes into the contest. Hope would pull within 11 points at the eight minute mark at 25-14, but Biola responded by stretching the lead back to as many as 22 before going to the half up 40-23.

In the second, the Eagles again opened strong, scoring 15 of the first 17 points of the half to reach a 30-point advantage at 55-25 with 14:28 to play. Even the reserves got into the action with every player in the game for more than 10 minutes recording at least four points. The Eagles opened up their largest lead of the contest on a nifty jumper in the lane by sophomore center Christina Barclay, which gave Biola a 71-33 lead with 5:50 to play.

The 52 points allowed the Eagles matched the second fewest allowed this season. Biola gave up just 49 points in a win at San Diego Christian earlier this month and suffered a loss despite allowing 52 points at Fresno Pacific in November.

Lauren Salazar, who was playing in just her second game of the season with the Royals, scored 18 points on 5-of-14 shooting from three-point range. Kendra James added nine points for Hope.

Biola has just 48 hours to prepare for its next game, a key GSAC battle against No. 12 Point Loma Nazarene University on Thursday (Jan. 29) at Chase Gymnasium. Tip off is slated for 5:30 p.m.