COSTA MESA, Calif. --- Senior center Christina Barclay returned to action on Saturday and scored 13 of her 18 points in the first half to help lead No. 8 Biola to a 68-55 victory over No. 13 Vanguard University in a GSAC game at The Pit in Costa Mesa on Saturday night.

The Eagles record their first win over Vanguard in Costa Mesa since the 2004 season and sweep the season series with the Lions for the first time in 10 years. More importantly, Biola snaps a two-game losing streak and improves to 18-5 overall. The Eagles also remain in sole possession of third place in the GSAC with a 10-4 conference mark. 

Vanguard falls to 13-7 on the season and drops into a tie with The Master's for fourth place in the conference with a 9-5 record.

The Eagles had three players score in double-figures, each having a big half and a relatively quiet half. Barclay was the lone offensive threat for Biola in the first half, scoring 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting. The senior, who missed the game against No. 5 Azusa Pacific on Tuesday due to an injury, scored Biola's first 13 points of the game. The rest of the team finished the period a combined 4-of-19 for 14 points.

Biola's two leading scorers, senior forwards Jessilyn Conicelli and Jennifer French, combined for two of those points in the first half. However, they would combine to score 32 of the Eagles' 41 second-half points with Conicelli finishing with 19 points and 10 rebounds while French added 15.

Conicelli's 10 rebounds in the contest pushes her over 1,000 for her career, making her the second Biola player to ever reach that figure. The senior, who had just 76 boards in her freshman year, has 276 this season and now has 1,001 in her four seasons at Biola. She also seventh in program history with 1,420 career points.

After falling behind 8-5 early in the first half, Vanguard roared back with a 10-point run to go up 15-8 at the 11:56 mark. Barclay would add a bucket,  then a three-point play two minutes later to bring the Eagles back to within two. Charrise Reece would score the first points not by Barclay, hitting a layup at the 8:04 mark to tie the score at 15.

Biola slowly pulled away near the end of the period, scoring the final four points before intermission to the half up 27-24.

In the second, the Lions closed to within one at 29-28 in the early going, but a three-pointer by French keyed a 15-4 Biola run over the next four minutes, giving the Eagles their largest lead of the game at 44-32. Vanguard could get no closer than eight the rest of the way as Biola held on for the 13-point win.

Biola shot an impressive 64 percent in the second half with French and Conicelli combining to hit 12-of-16 from the field. The Lions were held 38.7 percent shooting in the final 20 minutes and shot just 34.5 percent for the game.

Molly Pfohl led the Lions with 15 points while Sarah Boyd was just one rebound shy of a triple-double with 12 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds.

Biola closes out its brutal opening stretch, hosting The Master's College on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at Chase Gymnasium. The Mustangs upset the Eagles in Santa Clarita earlier this season, but were knocked off 61-47 at Concordia this afternoon.