BOX SCORE

LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Junior forward Jennifer French scored 18 points and Christina Barclay added 17 to lead Biola to an 84-70 non-conference victory over Whittier College on Tuesday night at Chase Gymnasium.

The victory was the first of the season for the Eagles, who improve to 1-3. It was also the first defeat for the Poets, who fall to 3-1.

Both French and Barclay finished the night 7-for-11 from the floor to pace Biola. French drained three three-pointers and added three rebounds, three assists and three steals. Barclay contributed six rebounds, three blocks, three assists and a steal.

The Eagles never trailed in the contest, though things were close early on. Biola opened up a quick 9-2 lead only to see Whittier fight back to within two at 11-9. The Poets closed an eight-point gap down to two at the 11:31 mark on back-to-back three-pointers by Brittany Aranda, the second of which made it 19-17 Biola.

The Eagles responded with a nine-point run composed of a three-pointer and layup by Emily Drews, then back-to-back jumpers by French. The Eagles stretched the lead to 20 at 44-24 with 1:32 left on a pair of three-pointers by Chelsea De Luca and Elise Paty and held a 20-point advantage at halftime.

In the second half, Biola stretched the lead to 34 at 70-36 with a 12-0 run over a three-minute stretch midway through the half. While the Eagles would score just three points over the next seven minutes, the Poets were unable to get any closer than 22 the rest of the way.

Brittany Aranda led Whittier with 13 points while Kourtney Zilbert added 10. Tina Merlino had nine points and eight rebounds for the Poets.

Biola had a fantastic shooting half in the first, connecting on 19-of-34 shots from the field, which translates to 55.9 percent. Despite shooting just 36.4 percent in the second, the Eagles finished the night with a 46.3 percent effort, easily the best of the season so far.

Biola also had a big edge in rebounding at 51-38 thanks in large part to the play of junior transfer Deshaye Sells, who pulled down nine.

Junior forward Jessilyn Conicelli scored 14 points and added seven rebounds--five on the offensive glass--in just 14 minutes. Conicelli, who is the Eagles leading scorer early on, was plagued with foul trouble and played just four minutes in the first half.

Biola returns to action on Tuesday (Dec. 1), opening GSAC play with a home contest against Fresno Pacific University. The game is slated for a 5:30 p.m. tip-off at Chase Gymnasium.