SAN DIMAS, Calif. --- Biola Men's Basketball continued its hot start to the 2016-17 campaign with a convincing victory in its final game before the Christmas break. The Eagles traveled to San Dimas to square off against NCCAA member Life Pacific and worked a 72-49 win.
 
After a slow start with the scoring the Eagles began to pull away in the first half when they made use of the offensive glass. Biola had nine offensive rebounds in the first 20 minutes and turned that into 14 second-chance points.
 
BU held a 33-23 lead at the halftime break, which meant nearly half of their point total came off of the hard work on the offensive glass.
 
The rebounding was strong at both ends of the floor throughout that half though as the Eagles held a 23-13 advantage in boards at the break. Life Pacific had good size, but two of its tallest players were taking a bunch of outside shots, which left them at a considerable disadvantage under the basket. As a result the Eagles had a heyday pulling the ball in after errant shots.
 
Biola shot 46 percent in the first half, but that number was significantly lower through the first few minutes as both teams struggled to find buckets. Twenty-one of the Eagles' 33 first-half points came in the final 10 minutes of the period.
 
Coming in off the bench Alex Talma made a big difference in that first-half output. Talma shot 4-of-5 from the floor in 10 first-half minutes while accumulating a game-high nine points before the break.
 
It was another big man that made the difference in the second half as Caelan Tiongson came alive and scored 15 points over the final 20 minutes to help the Eagles outscore LPC 39-26 in that frame. Tiongson went 5-of-9 from the floor and 4-of-6 from the strip to help him become the game's leading scorer with 21 total points.
 
Tiongson was one of four Eagles that would end in double-digits, including Talma (11), Dakari Archer (10) and Ryan Swain (10).
 
Swain had an active 27 minutes as he ended with those 10 points, nine rebounds (team-high), a pair of assists and a steal.
 
The Eagles made 50 percent of their shots in the second half and ended up shooting 48 percent for the game. They held the Warriors to just 33 percent from the field and allowed LPC just eight points over the final 7:11 of the game to help pull away.
 
Blake Shannon, Jr. led the team up and down the court for a majority of the second half and notched his fourth 20+ minute game in his last five times out. He would end the game with four assists, no turnovers, three rebounds and a pair of points in a great game.

The win pushes Biola to 13-1 on the season. It was an exhibition for Life Pacific, who stays at 5-4 on the year. The Eagles are off now for Christmas break and do not play again until they host Fraser Valley at 2:00 p.m. on New Year's Eve.