Box Score LANCASTER, Calif. --- Biola hit the road for its first away game of the 2016-17 season on Tuesday night, and it certainly was no easy road trip to begin the year. The No. 4 Eagles came away with an 84-78 victory over the University of Antelope Valley Pioneers, but it was just by the skin of their teeth.
 
The Eagles made the two-and-a-half hour road trip to Lancaster to play the Pioneers in their first contest of the season at their UAV Pioneer Event Center. The home team came out ready to play and used its up-tempo attack and hot jump shooting to hold a lead for much of the first half.
 
This lead was kept to a minimum thanks to some massive output from Caelan Tiongson inside the paint. He took full advantage of a mismatch with a smaller player to score 11 of the Eagles' first 15 points and 15 total first-half points.
 
That output allowed Biola to never trail by more than five in a challenging first 20 minutes. UAV held a grasp on that five-point lead just four minutes before the halftime break when things finally began to go right for Biola.
 
A made free throw from Ryan Swain was followed by eight consecutive points from Trevor Treinen as the team turned the five-point deficit to a four-point advantage in just three minutes of play.
 
That swing was exactly the momentum Biola would need to send it into halftime with at least the confidence of having a lead. The Eagles would go into the locker room with a 40-36 advantage.
 
Biola was fortunate to hold that lead as it went just 11-of-18 from the free-throw line and failed to take advantage of the Pioneers' tendency to foul early and often throughout that first half. The early scoring from Tiongson and a slight advantage in rebounding was what helped BU win the first half.
 
Antelope Valley began to cut into the Biola lead right away with a three-point make for the first points of the second half. The Eagles got back-to-back scores in the paint as Tiongson and Jeff Gonzalez brought the lead up to five.
 
Some cold stretches on both sides kept the game close until Biola went on a nine-minute stretch of sound defense and tremendous shooting out of Treinen to build its way to a 75-56 lead with less than seven minutes to play.
 
Treinen scored 11 of the Eagles' 31 points during that stretch as he caught fire from beyond the arc and found a way to lose his man and get open for the shot repeatedly. He would end the game 5-of-8 from three-point land and with 21 points overall. His point total was second only to Tiongson's 23.
 
That 19-point lead would normally be more than enough to suffice with this defense led by Dr. Dave Holmquist. However, tonight did not exactly go as scripted. UAV turned up the tempo again down the stretch and started forcing their way into the paint area for transition buckets and fouls that created chances for three-point plays.
 
Enough possessions like that helped UAV whittle the lead all the way down to four within the final minute and was enough to make the No. 4 team in the country sweat down the stretch.
 
Ultimately, Dakari Archer made five free throws down the stretch to help keep the Pioneers at arms length just enough to escape with a win. Archer was relatively quiet on this night as he had to battle being in foul trouble for much of the game. He still ended with 10 points, two assists and four rebounds in 25 minutes.
 
The win helps the Eagles move to 4-0, while the Pioneers fell to 1-2 on the season. Biola continues its preseason schedule on Friday at 2:30 p.m. as it plays CSU San Marcos (NCAA Division II) at a tournament hosted by Concordia-Irvine.