Box Score IRVINE, Calif. --- For a majority of the game a 5-0 start was looking like it was going to be out of the picture as No. 4 Biola Men's Basketball faced its toughest test of the season on Friday afternoon in a tournament game against NCAA Division II foe CSU San Marcos.
 
The Cougars rode some hot shooting to overtake an early Biola lead and hold an advantage in the game for just about all of the 22-minute span between the eight-minute mark in the first half and six-minute mark in the second half.
 
Unfortunately for CSU San Marcos, Biola's Dakari Archer showed up and showed up in a big way late in the game to lead the Eagles to a 65-61 victory and set a new career-high in scoring with 34 points.
 
The senior All-American point guard scored five of his points in the first five minutes of the game to help the Eagles to a 7-0 lead right out of the gate. Then he had another five-point streak, this time scoring five points in 18 seconds as he helped Biola overcome the lengthy CSUSM lead and extend to a five-point lead of its own with just over six and a half minutes left in the second half.
 
Archer was 11-of-18 from the field in the contest and an incredible 11-of-12 from the free-throw line as he helped Dr. Dave Holmquist's squad stay just a hair ahead of a talented, athletic CSU San Marcos team.
 
After Archer made the three-point shot that gave Biola its lead at 6:55 the team would never again trail in the contest. Archer scored all but four of Biola's points during that final seven minutes of the game.
 
The Cougars were down by as much as seven within the final 30 seconds of the contest, but they managed to tighten it to just a two-point disadvantage with :08 left in the game. They were forced to foul Archer, who made both free throws for points 36 and 34 and sealed the game. Dakari's 34 was just 15 fewer points than he accumulated during the first four games combined.
 
He was a huge reason, but not the only reason, this deep Eagles' team was able to forge its way back from as big of a deficit as eight points. Good work inside from Caelan Tiongson and a big shot or two from Ryan Swain were key both late in the Eagles' comeback and down their stretch run with the lead.
 
Swain ended with six points and six boards, while Tiongson had four and five, respectively. It was a challenging game for the Eagles' returning senior forward, but the four points he did have were just at the right time and enabled the team to turn deficit into advantage.
 
With Archer's leadership the Eagles really turned things around in the second half as they shot 60 percent from the floor (compared to 29 percent in the first) and outrebounded CSU San Marcos 16-9.
 
Biola (5-0) will be in for another big challenge tomorrow as it plays the second part of its NCAA Division II tournament at Concordia-Irvine in a 1:00 p.m matchup with Chico State (1-0). The Wildcats opened their season today with a 65-61 win over Concordia.