SANTA BARBARA, Calif. --- After playing its worst half of the season thus far, No. 6 Biola used a big second half to come from behind and beat No. 22 Westmont, 61-51, in a GSAC contest on Tuesday night at Murchison Gymnasium in Santa Barbara.
The Eagles, who moved up one spot nationally to No. 6 in the NAIA Rankings, improve to 17-3 and to 9-2 in GSAC play with their fourth-straight win over the Warriors. Westmont falls to 14-5, 6-5 in conference action.
Jessilyn Conicelli again led the Eagles with 22 points and 14 rebounds for her fourth consecutive double-double and 14th of the season.
Emily Drews had a big second half, scoring 10 of her 14 points in the final 20 minutes and keying a big run with back-to-back three-pointers.
"It was one of those games where we just wanted to get to halftime to rework the game plan and tweak things a bit," said Head Coach Ken Crawford. "Westmont came out with a great game plan and we weren't adjusting well out there. Even when we beat the zone, we were missing open shots in the first half. But we did a good enough job on defense to keep it close so we could come back."
After a poor first half, Biola roared back into the game near the midway point of the second half, using a 13-2 run to go on top 40-36 with just over eight minutes remaining. Drews keyed the run, hitting back-to-back three pointers after the Eagles missed their first nine three-point attempts in the game.
Still up by four with 6:56 to play, Biola went on another run, scoring seven straight points over the next four minutes to go on top by 11 with 1:41 left in the contest. Westmont was unable to get any closer than seven the rest of the way.
The game got off to a back-and-forth start for both teams, neither of which took a lead larger than two points through much of the first half. After taking back the lead at 16-15 on a pair of free throws by
Emily Drews with 6:42 to go, Biola went silent. Westmont closed out the half on a 10-2 run aided by six turnovers and 1-of-7 shooting by the Eagles the rest of the period.
Biola shot just 23.5 percent (8-of-34) in the first half, its lowest shooting half of the season and just the third half in which the team shot under 30 percent.
The second half was a different story, however, with the Eagles hitting 48.4 percent (15-of-31) while holding the Warriors to just 22 percent. Biola outscored Westmont 43-26 in the second half.
"I was proud of how our team responded in the second half," said Crawford. "I think it was a sign of a team that's becoming more experienced and more veteran as the year goes on. They were more frustrated with themselves than anything else and came back out and fixed it."
The Eagles, who lead the NAIA in field goal percentage defense at 32.2 percent coming into the game, held the Warriors to just 24.1 percent shooting in the game, the lowest a Biola opponent has recorded this season.
Christina Barclay added 11 points, eight rebounds and four assists for the Eagles in the contest.
Lauren Gustafson had eight points and four assists as well.
Katie Kittle led Westmont with 13 points, scoring six from the free throw line while Lisa Peterson added 11 points--seven from the charity stripe--and nine boards.
Biola now prepares for a game which likely will determine the winner of the GSAC regular season title. The Eagles host No. 5 California Baptist University on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. in the NAIA Game of the Week. Biola lost at Cal Baptist earlier in the season and trails the Lancers by one game in the conference standings.
The road doesn't get much easier after that as the Eagles face No. 7 and arch-rival Azusa Pacific University on Tuesday, then travel to take on No. 12 Vanguard on Saturday.
