LA MIRADA, Calif. --- For 20 minutes there was a compelling, exciting, close ballgame going on inside of Chase Gymnasium on Wednesday night. However, Biola was able to make the right adjustments at halftime to carry it to a huge second half and complete the season sweep of Saint Katherine with a 77-60 win.
"There were a lot of good things in the second half," said Head Coach Dr. Dave Holmquist. "It's hard to play a team a second time when you beat them by a lot in the first time. They are a good team with some talent and played hard tonight."
The Eagles' outscored the Firebirds 43-29 in the final 20 minutes to turn a three-point game into a 17-point win. Levi Auble gets the credit for keeping Biola in the game and ultimately ahead at halftime. He posted 14 points, two rebounds and played some solid defense in the first half, leading him to his best overall performance of the season.
It was his fellow senior, Trevor Treinen, that took over the conducting on offense in the second half, scoring 11 second-half points and setting up five other baskets to bring his game totals to 17 points and seven assists.
Treinen's ball distribution has been right on the money the past few games, with the senior SG racking up 23 assists in his last four outings.
Besides Biola shooting the ball eight points better in the second half and making four times as many threes as it hit in the first, this game really saw Saint Katherine's effort fall off the tracks a bit in the final 20 minutes.
Just over 30 seconds into the period the USK coach received a technical foul, which set the tone for an intense, foul-heavy and relatively sloppy 20 minutes of hoops down the stretch. The Firebirds would ultimately end up with 22 fouls + the technical and had one player foul out and two others end the night on the bench with four fouls each.
Biola's defense held the Firebirds to just eight points over the first eight-plus minutes of the second-half to build up to a 54-39 lead. From that point on there was not much USK could do to dip into the lead at all. The Firebirds trailed by at least 10 for the final 16 minutes and 39 seconds.
Treinen's 17 and Auble's 16 led the scoring effort for BU with Alex Talma ending with 14 and Steve Herve breaking into double-digits for the first time this season with 13 points.
Herve compiled those points on a very efficient 5-of-6 shooting performance and was 3-for-4 from the free throw line. His 28 minutes is also a season-high. The senior from Cameroon ended up just one rebound shy of a double-double, leading the team with nine.
"Steve and Levi had good offensive games," said Holmquist. "Both of those guys are coming off injuries and so it just takes a little while to get going. It was good to see both of those guys scoring."
Biola had a huge advantage in rebounding as they continue to pace the PacWest Conference in that category. The Eagles had 43 rebounds, including 13 on the offensive end, while USK managed just 28 total.
Once again the Eagles did not have the cleanest game in terms of turnovers. They had 15, resulting in 16 additional points for the Firebirds. They've got five practices coming up between now and their next game to get that all figured out.
"That second half was a strong half, in terms of out ball movement. Our defense got better, too," said Holmquist.
The next game is the team's PacWest Conference opener, when they host Notre Dame de Namur (0-4) on Thursday, Nov. 29 at 7:30 p.m. Biola won the teams' only meeting in 2017-18 (60-52).
