Box Score LA MIRADA, Calif. --- It's been a rough few weeks for Biola Men's Basketball, but Christmas came early as the Eagles got themselves a present in the form of a 17-point win to snap a two-game losing streak.
 
"We're just happy to get a win after the last two games," said Head Coach Dr. Dave Holmquist. "We still have improvements to make, but I though we played hard, which is difficult to do right after finals end."
 
The Eagles did not do too well during this same portion of the schedule last season, losing on this very day, Saturday after finals, to Trinity Western, 83-56. They did not have any sort of post-finals hangover today, shooting, passing and scoring very efficiently.
 
Biola shot 55 percent from the floor, keyed by great shooting performances from Dakari Archer and Pierre Zook, to earn a 77-60 win over the visiting Trinity Western Spartans.
 
The win gets Biola back in the win column for the first time since Dec. 2, and it improves the Eagles to 11-3 overall this season. Today's game was an international exhibition for the 1-9 Spartans.
 
The duo of Archer and Zook carried the Eagles' steady offense throughout the game. They both had 12 points in the first half and six and seven, respectively, in the final 20 minutes.
 
The second half is where Biola really took control of the game, capitalizing on Trinity Western turnovers to take what was a five-point halftime lead and extend it to the 17 points it would end with.
 
The Eagles turned the Spartans' 19 turnovers into 20 points and limited their own mistakes to just 13 total turnovers. Tyus Allen, TWU's starting point guard, led all players with nine giveaways, five coming in the second half.
 
Biola had to adjust in the second half, as within the first few minutes of the frame the Spartans turned back-to-back good possessions into a three-point lead, their largest of the game.
 
The Eagles outscored Trinity Western 39-19 for the rest of the game, including a big six-minute 9-2 run that built the Biola lead to double-digits and just about secured the game with six minutes to play.
 
Caelan Tiongson and Blake Shannon, Jr., two of the Eagles' key bench players on the afternoon, contributed to that late second-half run and ended the game with a combined 19 points in standout performances for both of them. Biola's bench ended with 23 total points.
 
"Caelan and Blake really helped us, and Pierre and Dakari also scored a lot of points," said Holmquist. "Caelan played an especially good game, making key plays when we made that little run in the second half."


After getting killed on the fast break in its last outing, Biola turned the tables in this one, outscoring the Spartans 13-6 on the break.
 
The Eagles spread the ball, and playing time, around today, with four players scoring 10-plus points and eight playing 10-plus minutes.
 
Biola gets back in action after the Christmas break, hosting UC Merced on Dec. 30.