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Scoreboard

Whitten Dominguez plays defense
Adam Washington
58
Cal St. San Marcos CSUSM 0-1
64
Winner Biola BU-MBB 1-0
Cal St. San Marcos CSUSM
0-1
58
Final
64
Biola BU-MBB
1-0
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Cal St. San Marcos CSUSM 22 36 58
Biola BU-MBB 21 43 64

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

Starting On The Wright Foot

Alex Wright scores 20 in his college debut to lift BU to a win.

LA MIRADA, Calif --- Biola Men's Basketball wasted no time in getting their first victory out of the way. The Eagles came from behind with a strong second half to set back a CSU San Marcos team that won 20 games last season. Biola's 43-46 advantage in the second half lifted the team to the eventual 64-58 win.

Biola only held an opponent to 58 points or fewer one time last season, so the strong defensive effort out the gate is a good sign for Dr. Dave Holmquist's Eagles. An even better sign, it comes against a CSUSM team that beat BU by 27 points last season.

"I am happy. The first game is always such a big game. Coming off of a tough year last year, we felt that even more today," said Holmquist. "There were a number of things in the first half that I thought we could have done much better, but the second half we made a lot of good plays at the right time."

Biola was down by as much as 11 points in the first half, but the Eagles managed to hold CSUSM to just two points over the final 6:17 of the first half while putting together a 12-2 run to bring the game back within a point at halftime.

The Cougars struck first in the second half and were able to open the lead up to as much as six points within the first few minutes. However, a layup from Alex Talma and emphatic breakaway dunk from Trevor Treinen brought Biola all the way back in it, down just 31-30 with 14:21 left in regulation.

Just a few minutes later, Biola was able to end a stretch of 21:11 of playing from behind when Alex Wright cashed in on the fastbreak to put BU on top 36-35. It was the lead since they took an early 4-0 advantage.

"We settled for some mediocre shots in the first half. Shooting higher percentage shots in the second half helped," said Holmquist.

A lot of those high percentage shots came from the hands of the Eagles' freshman, Wright. He went 6-for-8 in the second half and made 4-of-5 second-half free throw opportunities to score 18 of his 20 points over the final 20 minutes.

After Wright's bucket put Biola ahead, the two teams traded the lead eight times over the next seven minutes or so before the Eagles took the lead for good when it passed the Cougars at 50-49 with yet another Wright field goal.

Biola would out-score CSU San Marcos 14-9 over the rest of regulation to seal their first win of the season. It was also game number one for the Cougars who fall to 0-1.

The Eagles held San Marcos to just 36.5 percent shooting from the field and kept the Cougars to 3-of-21 from three-point range. Beyond the arc was not particularly friendly to either team as BU shot just 3-of-20 (15 percent) from deep.

Biola's saving grace ended up being its trips to the free throw line. Biola made 21 free throws, including shooting 90 percent from the line in 19 second-half chances. They only send CSUSM to the line for 15 foul shots all night.

The Eagles also managed to win the battle of the boards, 43-35, powered by Alex Talma's 13 rebounds. The New Zealand big man recorded the team's first double-double of the year with 11 points and 13 boards in 35 minutes on the floor.

Three guys played 34+ minutes for BU, and they happened to be the team's top three scorers. Wright led with 20, Treinen followed with 19 and Talma came in third with his 11. Michael Bagatourian had a solid offensive effort, scoring seven points in half a game.

That was Alex's first game he's played in college. He had 20 points and a high percentage shooting. It was good," said Holmquist. " The effort was real good and I am just happy to win the game."

Talma had 13 rebounds and Steve worked really hard on defense. The effort was real good and I am just happy to win it.

The Eagles got blocked five times and committed 17 turnovers, both areas they will look to clean up during tomorrow's 7:00 p.m. game against CSU Los Angeles (1-0). The Golden Eagles defeated Concordia Irvine 77-74 in overtime in the other game at Chase Gym on Friday.
 
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