FRESNO, Calif. --- Nate Rakestraw drained a three-pointer with 1:03 to go to break a tie and give No. 15 Biola a lead it would not relinquish as the Eagles scored a key 55-51 GSAC road victory over Fresno Pacific University on Tuesday night.

The victory is the fourth-straight for Biola, which improves to 23-4 and remains alone in third place with a 13-4 GSAC mark. The Sunbirds drop to 16-10 on the season and to 9-8 in conference play.

Rakestraw's three capped an exciting finish to what turned out to be a close game. Biola had led by double-digits in the first half and held a nine-point lead with 17 minutes left in the second. But Frenso Pacific made rallied and would eventually tie the score with 10 minutes to go. 

With one minute left, Biola broke the fifth tie of the final 10 minutes with Rakestraw's three pointer, then held on by hitting 3-of-4 free throws and playing strong defense over the final 63 seconds to win the game.

The game was not particularly well played by the Eagles, who shot just 37 percent (17-of-46) in the contest—their second-lowest shooting percentage of the season. Biola also turned the ball over 16 times and hit only two three-pointers. However, the Eagles held Fresno Pacific to 34.5 percent shooting and to 10 percent shooting (2-of-20) from three-point range, well below its 31.6 percent average coming in.

Dwight Gordon and Josh Miller each scored 12 points to lead the Eagles while Rakestraw added nine points.

Biola got off to a quick start in the first half, using a 10-0 run to go up 19-6 over seven minutes into the contest. The Sunbirds were able to cut the lead back to single-digits, but couldn't get any closer than eight points and trailed by that count at the half.

In the second half, Biola went up by nine thanks to a pair of free throws by Miller, making it a 35-26 game with 17:23 to go. But the momentum changed as Fresno Pacific used a 13-2 run over the next seven minutes to take its first lead of the game at 39-37 with 9:55 to play.

From there, the game went back and forth with neither team leading by more than three. Jordan Wild got the offensive rebound and putback with 1:32 to play to tie the score at 49-49. But Rakestraw came back down and drained a long three from the wing to put Biola back on top for good.

After a miss on the other end by the Sunbirds, Curtis Eatmon hit one of two free throws to make it a four-point lead. Fresno Pacific converted a pair of free throws with 21 seconds to play to get within two, but Eatmon calmly cashed in on two from the charity stripe on the other end with 12 seconds to play to seal the deal.

The road win was big as it was Biola's first win in Fresno since 2006-07 and the third-straight road victory for the Eagles, who had won just three of their first six conference road games. 

Biola returns to action on Saturday, hosting No. 2 Concordia University in yet another big GSAC game. The 7:30 p.m. game will cap Biola Athletics' Cancer Awareness Weekend. All of Biola's sports teams in season will help raise money for cancer research and to help out a family of former Biolans who have a daughter suffering from cancer. All of the proceeds from this weekends' games will go to this great cause.