Box Score
LA MIRADA, Calif. --- In front of their fans for the first time this season, Biola went to its bigs to pound away at a resilient but overmatched Simpson team. After a closer-than-it-should-have-been first half, the Eagles finally broke through in the second half, pulling away with an eight minute, 20-4 run to win 85-63.

"We played a much tighter defensive second half," said Head Coach Dr. Bethany Miller. "Our team is still learning defensive pressure and some of the speed of the game and making adjustments. We came in at halftime and talked about doing a lot of the little things that make you a great team, and I think they came out and executed those in a much stronger way in the second half."

Biola hit them on the block early with Chelsea Hill and Elizabeth Munger going over, around and through their defenders for a combined 41 points and 18 rebounds. As the Red Hawks tried to key more on those two, Biola's wings and bench forwards took advantage of the sagging defenders, and Hill dished out six assists finding them.

Sophomore Khadidja Diakite backdoor on her negligent defenders, grabbing two offensive rebounds and piling up all 11 of her points in the paint. Aubree Mittel took advantage of the attention paid to the bigs by getting open and knocking down all four of Biola's made three-pointers. She was 4-for-8 from deep on the night and has piled on eight three-point baskets in the last two games. The Eagles as a team outrebounded Simpson by 19 boards and hammered away for 28 more points in the paint. Simpson was only able to bring in 29 boards and knock down 20 points inside as it dropped to 0-4 on the season.

"Some of the stats that those 'little things' we talked about doing showed up on were the rebounds, and our assist-turnover ratio was nice," said Miller. "The team is doing a better job of being patient with the offense and understanding what our best looks are against certain players and certain teams. We grew up quite a bit from the first to second half. I was proud of the way the girls did that and handled that with composure." 
 
Simpson didn't go away easy. They hit four three-point shots in the first half to keep it within two at the half. Credit to the Red Hawks, as it seemed like Biola was going to pop the game open in the last five minutes of that half when Mittel hit back-to-back threes and Christiana Layne emphatically rejected a Simpson layup on the other end to push the lead up to nine. However, the Red hawks closed right back with an 11-4 run led by Katie Lenik and Emma Limburg to keep within two at the half.
 
The big run for Biola finally came three minutes into the second half. Munger got them started with seven straight Biola points. Simpson's coach saw where this might be going and tried to stem the tide with a timeout, but it wasto no avail. Hill, Munger, Mittel and Diakite all hit baskets to finish off the big run and all but finish off the game.
 
The Eagles are back at the Nest tomorrow, Nov. 8, as they host Northwest University at 3:00 p.m.