LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Senior guard Dwight Gordon poured in 22 points, scoring 20 or more for the second-straight game and third time in the last four contests, but it wasn't enough as No. 18 Biola fell 70-57 to No. 5 Azusa Pacific on Tuesday night at Chase Gymnasium.

The loss drops the Eagles to 19-4, 9-4 in GSAC play while the Cougars rebound from a loss in their last game to improve to 20-3, 11-2 in the conference.

Gordon continued hit hot play as of late with a 22-point effort, connecting on 9-of-16 shots from the field including an impressive array of acrobatic shots in the paint. David Cline added 10 points, but the pair was the lone two to reach double-figures.

However, the normally stingy Biola defense was unable to slow the Cougars' offense as the visitors shot 51 percent in the contest and led throughout much of the contest.

The Eagles got off to a quick start with the first four points of the contest, and led by one at 8-7. But a bucket bucket on the other end gave the Cougars an advantage they would not relinquish with 13:07 to go in the half. 

Biola kept things close and still trailed by just one at the 11:59 mark, but APU pulled away with a quick 8-0 run over the next two minutes to go up 21-12. The Eagles would whittle the lead back down to two,  but a quick flurry of points over the final minute of the half saw the Cougars head to the locker room with a 39-28 advantage.

Azusa Pacific was able to connect on 55 percent of its shots in the first period with many of those misses coming in the first eight minutes. Biola shot a respectable 41.4 percent but hit just 1-of-11 shots from three-point range.

In the second, Biola worked the lead down to five at 48-43 on a Cline jumper with 13:09 to play in the contest. The APU lead was still at five four minutes later when the Cougars slowly pulled away for good. Reggie Owens and Dallas Rutherford hit back-to-back jumpers with Caleb Burgess draining a straight-away three to put Azusa Pacific on top by 12, 60-48 with just over seven minutes left.

Biola got it down to nine on a pair of occasions down the stretch, but a thunderous dunk by Marshall Johnson put the finishing touches on the contest.

The Eagles, who rank second in the NAIA in scoring defense, allowed 70 points for just the sixth time this season and allowed a team to shoot better than 50 percent for the third time.

Biola was only able to hit 38.9 percent from the field, marking the second time the Eagles shot below 40 percent in a game. The other was in a 71-57 loss up at Azusa earlier in the season.

Marshall Johnson led a quintet of APU players in double figures with 15 points while Owens added a 12-point, 13-rebound double-double.

Biola returns to action on Saturday, traveling to Costa Mesa to face Vanguard University in a GSAC contest at 7:30 p.m.