Box Score IRVINE, Calif. --- Biola overcame an 11-point, second-half deficit to rally and beat Concordia 76-72 on Saturday night for its fifth-straight win over its GSAC rival and third-straight in Irvine.
Biola improves to 12-10 on the season and moves to 2-4 in conference play while dropping Concordia to 13-7 and 2-4 in GSAC competition. Both teams are part of a five-way tie for fourth place in the GSAC standings with one game to go in the first half of the conference schedule.
Zack Zaragoza led Biola with 17 points including 12 in the second half in his first game back after missing the last four games due to injury. Mike Kurtz added 15 points and nine rebounds while David Cline contributed 13 points and eight boards. Dakota Anderson scored 12 and was a perfect 6-of-6 from the free throw line.
Coming off one of its worst showings in program history, Biola looked like a completely different team, especially over the final 11 minutes of the game.
Biola trailed 58-47 with 10:58 to play, but outscored Concordia 19-6 over the next six minutes to take its first lead of the game and held on down the stretch to pick up the huge win.
Concordia jumped out to an early lead in the game, taking a 15-6 lead just under seven minutes in. Biola worked back into the game and used a 15-6 run of its own over the next six minutes to tie the game at 21-21.
A three-pointer by Zaragoza would tie the game again at 24-24 with 6:25 left in the half, but Biola went cold. Concordia hit five seven throws over the next four minutes, adding a pair of three-pointers to go up by nine with 2:57 left and took a 40-30 lead to the half.
Concordia seemed unable to miss from three-point range, hitting 8-of-19 in the first half to account for 24 of its 40 points.
Biola opened the second half strong, scoring the first five points to cut the lead to five two minutes in. A three-pointer by Zaragoza with 14:35 left cut the lead to three but Concordia extended the lead back to double-figures at 58-47 with 10:58 left.
But Biola again responded with a long run, using an 11-2 run over the next three-plus minutes to make it a 60-58 game with 7:21 left. Concordia would stretch the lead back to four with 5:07 remaining, but Zaragoza converted a four-point play, draining a three and hitting the free throw after the foul to tie the game at 64-64 with 4:42 to play.
After a turnover on the next possession, Concordia fouled Jeremy Pope, who hit both free throws to give Biola its first lead of the game at 66-64 with just over four minutes remaining. Two possessions later, Dakota Anderson capped the eight-point run by hitting a pair of free throws to make it a four-point game with three minutes left.
Concordia ended the run with a pair of free throws on the next possession to cut the lead to two, but Zaragoza hit a fall away two-pointer as the shot clock was running down to stretch it back to four. Biola then forced a turnover with 1:55 left and Pope made them pay with a floater in the lane to make it a 72-66 game with 1:37 on the clock.
Concordia answered back with a bucket then after a miss on the other end, converted a pair of free throws to make it 72-70 with 1:06 to go. But after Pope missed a shot with the shot clock running down, he was able to get his own rebound and pass it out to Anderson who was fouled with 38.6 seconds left.
Anderson would hit both free throws to stretch the lead back up to four but Concordia answered back with an easy layup on the other end to make it 74-72 with 25.9 seconds on the clock.
After a Concordia foul, Kurtz hit a pair of free throws and stretched back to four-points with 16 seconds left. Concordia would miss a shot on the other end and Biola gathered the rebound and that was it.
Concordia hit just one three-pointer in the second half while Biola found its rhythm by hitting 5-of-8 from beyond the arc.
Biola shot well in the contest, hitting 44.4% (25-of-54) from the field while Concordia connected on 42% (21-of-50). Biola held a huge rebounding edge at 42-28 including a 16-8 edge on the offensive glass. That led to a 17-9 edge in second-chance points.
Biola has now won its last five games against Concordia after losing 10-straight before that. Biola has also won three consecutive games at Concordia including the GSAC Tournament championship game last year. Biola swept the season series last year including a 75-62 win in the regular season meeting at the CU Arena.
Biola closes out the first half of the conference schedule on Tuesday, hosting GSAC newcomer Arizona Christian (13-5, 3-3 GSAC) at 7:30 p.m. The Firestorm have lost three of their last four since winning their first two GSAC games including Saturday night's 78-70 loss at No. 6 Westmont.
