Box Score SAN MARCOS, Calif. --- Biola men's basketball has come a long way in a month. Exactly one month ago today, the Eagles lost by 19 points to unranked William Jessup, and tonight the Eagles battled to just a five-point difference, 81-76, in a loss against the No. 3 team in the country, CSU San Marcos.
 
Biola hung tough with the high-scoring Cougars throughout the night, trailing throughout, but using a number of point-scoring streaks to pull the game back within reach each time it seemed to slip away.
 
The Eagles stayed within six points of the Cougars throughout the first half, but a 21-6 run from CSUSM in the early-to-middle second half made the game officially look out of reach. The Cougars' Taran Brown made three three-pointers through that stretch, compiling nine of his team-leading 20 points.
 
The deep shot was a key element of CSU San Marcos' offense throughout the game, making 10 shots from behind the arc at a 45.5 percent clip. Entering play today, the Eagles defense was able to defend well against the deep shot, allowing an average of just six three-pointers per contest.
 
Late in the game Biola began to find its own three-point stroke as Pierre Zook took over to bring Biola back to a very-respectable deficit. After trailing by a game-high 16points, the Eagles rode a 21-9 run to bring the score to 74-70 with just 1:22 left in the second half.
 
Eight of those 21 points came from Zook, who scored 17 second-half points en route to his team-leading 24 in the game.
 
Unfortunately, despite Zook's late scoring Biola failed to take advantage of some late Cougars' turnovers and didn't make free throws in the final minute, leading to the loss.
 
Zook and Mike Kurtz did all they could to keep Biola's offense involved, combining for 40 of the Eagles' 76 points. Kurtz had his second-straight double-double, posting 16 rebounds to help the Eagles outrebound CSUSM 49-36. Kurtz, Steve Herve and Christian Misi were fantastic rebounders on the offensive end, combining for 12 of Biola's 21 offensive rebounds. The strong offensive rebounding led to a 24-7 advantage in second-chance points.
 
While the Eagles held the advantage in most statistical categories, CSUSM made better use of its possessions, shooting 28-61 (46 percent) from the floor to gain the offensive advantage that carried them through to their 18^th win of the season. The Cougars improved to 18-2, while Biola falls to 13-4.
 
The Eagles have another tough test in their next game, a home contest against No. 2 Hope International on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.