Box Score
LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Golden State Athletic Conference Men's Basketball sure is going to be fun to watch all year long in 2016-17. Two top-25 teams went head-to-head inside of Chase Gym on Tuesday night and it went down to the wire, all the way down to the wire, before a Dakari Archer buzzer-beater three lifted Biola over The Master's, 66-64.
 
Biola seemed the better team throughout and never trailed by more than two points in the contest, but the buzzer-beater elicited a surge of elation throughout the home crowd, because the Eagles looked all-but-done as the game worked through its final few seconds.
 
The Master's took a 64-63 lead with just under a minute remaining as their second-half superman, Hansel Atencia, drove to the basket and laid the ball in. Biola looked to answer back immediately on offense in its ensuing possession, but TMU came away with a steal as just over 38 seconds remained on the clock.
 
The Mustangs had the ball and just needed to find a way to get one more bucket on what would be their final possession of the game to make overtime the best case scenario for BU. Instead, just about six seconds into their shot clock their guards had a miscommunication on a cross-court pass and sent the ball sailing out of bounds so Biola could take possession with 31 seconds to play.
 
Ryan Swain eventually got the ball on the all-important late-game possession and took a mid-range jumper that clanked right back to the senior wing who through up a second-chance layup. That too clanked off and ultimately bounced out of bounds off a TMU player.

This resulted in a Biola ball with just over eight seconds left and a base line inbound play. The Eagles sent the inbounds pass to a cutting Archer who threw up a beautiful baseline jumper that just missed, but was tipped back out to the top of the key by Caelan Tiongson.
 
After a few seconds, which seemed like eternity, Jeff Gonzalez came up with the ball and outlet it to a wide-open Archer who was about three feet behind the three point arc and released the game-winning shot with just under a second on the clock before falling backward to be mobbed by his teammates and the crowd. It was the only three-point basket the senior made all night.
 
"We had too many fouls, too many turnovers and we rebounded very well and just happened to be ahead by a little bit when it ended," said Head Coach Dr. Dave Holmquist. "That's what makes sports exciting. We could have just as easily have lost that game as we won it. It just feels nice to have won it."
 
In the end that shot is what everyone will remember, but it's the contributions of the rest of this Eagles team that should not be forgotten. Tiongson's huge offensive rebound on that final possession was one of 17 boards he had this evening. He also added 20 points and was almost single-handedly responsible for the seven-point edge the Eagles were able to claim at halftime.
 
It was one of those nights where everyone did just enough to have the Eagles escape with a well-earned victory against a very good team. Biola was outscored by five in the second half and it shot just 27 percent, but at the end of the day it will go down in the W column and be one of the most cherished victories of the 2016-17 season.
 
What saved Biola, all the way down to the final play, was its ability to come up with offensive rebounds. The Eagles were strong on the glass all night, but especially in the second half, where they found 23 total rebounds and 11 on the offensive end.
 
Archer ended with 11 and Swain also added 11 as the Eagles' only other double-digit scorers. Ten of Tiongson's 20 came from the foul line as BU had one of its best games from the stripe (20-27). Atencia would end up second on The Master's with 16 points in the game, but he's the entire reason they were able to have a legitimate shot down the stretch as he piled in 13 second-half points on 5-of-7 shooting.
 
Biola gets its first Golden State Athletic Conference win of the new year and improves to 15-1 (1-1 GSAC). The Master's falls to 11-2 (1-2 GSAC).
 
"They [The Master's], have gotten really good," said Dr. Dave Holmquist. "They've done a great job of bringing some good guys in and have coached them real well. This conference has six or seven really good teams and on any night anyone can beat anybody. The Master's is certainly one of the best teams in that bunch."
 
The Eagles have another big test coming up this weekend as it travels to Santa Barbara for a matchup with No. 7 Westmont (14-1, 3-0 GSAC) at 7:30 p.m.