SANTA BARBARA, Calif. --- No. 4 Biola nearly got caught looking ahead to one of its biggest home games in recent memory, but managed to pull away late to keep its perfect record alive, beating No. 22 Westmont College 62-43 in a GSAC game at Murchison Gymnasium on Tuesday night.

The Eagles, ranked No. 4 in the latest NAIA nationally-rankings, move to 16-0 on the season with the win and stay in first place in the GSAC with a 6-0 record. It sets up a huge battle between two of the four remaining unbeaten teams in the NAIA as No. 4 Biola hosts No. 2 Concordia on Saturday. The Warriors drop to 11-4 and to 3-3 in conference play.

Senior guard Marlon King, who was recently named the GSAC Player of the Week, continued his red-hot play, scoring 22 points and adding five assists for the Eagles. He was 6-of-7 from the free throw line as Biola--one of the worst free throw shooting teams in the country coming in--hit 13-of-14 from the charity stripe in the game.

The Warriors entered the game as one of the top shooting teams in the NAIA, ranking third in three-point shooting at 43.8 percent and fifth in field goal percentage at 51.7 percent. However, the NAIA's best defense was up to the task, holding Westmont to just 2-of-22 shooting from beyond the arc (9.1 percent) and just a shade over 31 percent from the field in the game (16-of-51). It was the second-lowest field goal percentage against by the Eagles this season and came in one of the biggest road games so far on the year.

That defensive effort by the Eagles helped bail out the offense, which struggled mightily through the first 30-plus minutes of the game.

The first half was a quiet one as the team combined for just 41 points with the Eagles holding a slight 22-19 lead. King's three-pointer with 13:37 to go in the first half gave the Eagles an 11-7 lead as they looked to try to pull away. But the Warriors responded with an eight-point run to take their largest lead of the game at 15-11. From there, the teams see-sawed back and forth until Andrew Schroeder scored the final four points of the half to give Biola the three-point halftime lead.

It was the lowest scoring first-half of the season for the Eagles, who shot just 25.8 percent in the opening 20 minutes, but it turn gave up the second-fewest points in the first half this year with a strong defensive effort.

In the second half, the teams continued the close game, with neither team able take a lead larger than a few points. Senior forward Rocky Hampton, who leads the team in scoring, didn't score his first points of the game until 7:38 was left in the contest. But when he finally did get into the scorebook with a three-point play, it gave Biola a five-point lead and seemed to finally ignite the offense. Leading 36-33 with 7:22 to go, the Eagles rattled off 7-0 run to stretch the lead to 10 and never looked back.

Biola shot an impressive 66.7 percent in the second half, hitting 14-of-21 from the field, while holding Westmont to just 29.6 percent (8-of-27) including 0-of-11 from three-point land.

Josh Miller recorded 14 points in the game for the Eagles, adding eight rebounds and two assists. Nate Rakestraw contributed 11 points thanks to three three-pointers. It was his third-straight game with at least three three-pointers made and gives him 38 on the season.

Overall, the Eagles connected on seven three-pointers in the game, giving them 24 in the last three games.

Now it's on to one of the biggest games for Biola in quite a while. The Eagles will put their undefeated record on the line against No. 2 Concordia, which has an identical 16-0 overall and 6-0 conference record. Biola hosts Concordia on Saturday (Jan. 16) at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for the game are available in advance through the Biola Athletics website by visiting the new ticketing page: http://athletics.biola.edu/tickets. Tickets can be printed out at home or picked up at will cal the night of the game.