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Marquise Mosley layup
George Rodriguez
79
La Sierra LSU 0-1
94
Winner Biola BIO 1-2,0-0 PacWest
La Sierra LSU
0-1
79
Final
94
Biola BIO
1-2,0-0 PacWest
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
La Sierra LSU 32 47 79
Biola BIO 45 49 94

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

Rossow Drops 27 In A Win

Biola gets its first win of the year powered by a big night from Chris Rossow and in rebounding.

LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Biola Men's Basketball can breathe a sigh of relief as it has its first win out of the way. The Eagles won 94-79 over La Sierra University in a game that wasn't perfect, but one that definitely showed the promise of what the team's capable of.

"It's good to get a win, of course," said Head Coach Dr. Dave Holmquist. "We have to sure up our defense. They shot over 50 percent from the floor, so we have to improve that, but we rebounded well and made a lot of good plays on offense."

Chris Rossow was the biggest eye-opener in the first game of the year at Chase Gymnasium. The junior guard, who transferred in from Southwest Baptist, went off for 27 points and was a dangerous option for the Eagles from the very start.
 
"Chris made a lot of nice plays," said Holmquist. "He took good shots using a mix of things, shooting outside, driving and being all over the floor."

He shot 11-for-17 from the field (.647), including a standout tally of 4-for-7 from deep. Rossow also paced the Eagles' defensive effort with four steals and setup his teammates with four dimes.

His work was a big reason Biola was able to build a sustainable early lead as he scored six of Biola's points during an 11-0 run that took the game from 14-9 at the 12:01 mark to 25-9 at the 9:45 mark in the first half.

"It was a great night," said Rossow. "I loved the energy from the fans, teammates and coaches. It felt really good getting our first win. We're ready to go get the second one Thursday."

Biola would lead by as many as 18 and as few as six before ultimately settling into the halftime locker room with a 45-32 advantage. Marquise Mosley gave Biola a bit of breathing room as he hit a three-pointer as the last field goal of the first half.
 
Mosley was third on the team with 15 points in this one. He, Alex Wright and Whitten Dominguez each hit two three-point shots to pair with Rossow's three and give Biola a season-high 11 makes from deep by the end of the night.

"We did a lot of good things out there on offense," said Holmquist. "There were just some things that if we're going to beat really good teams we need to improve."

Some good transition offense in the middle part of the second half helped La Sierra cut the lead down to eight with just over nine minutes to play. 

Just after LSU's Uriel Lejtman made the basket to cut it to eight, the Eagles went on a 14-2 run over the next two-and-a-half minutes to blow things up to 80-60. That was the second time on the night the team displayed an ability to put large chunks of points on the board very, very quickly. A quality that hasn't been necessarily true about Biola Men's Basketball for the past couple of years, when the team's offense has been much more methodical.

Rossow accounted for five of those 14 points in the run, while Mosley added four to demonstrate the scoring ability of the Eagles' athletic backcourt.
 
The lead never again dipped below single digits and Alex Wright iced the game on Biola's final possession with a three-point make of his own to bring the game to its final resting place of 94-79.

It's just the 11th time in the last 171 games that Biola's topped 90 on the scoreboard.

"I think overall we played really well together," said Rossow. "We had good ball movement, we were talking and finding the open man. We just need to clean up our performance on defense and the rest will take care of itself."

Rebounding was a major reason the Eagles were able to build large leads and score as regularly as they did. BU actually shot at a lower percentage than La Sierra, but thanks to a massive advantage on the boards (47-25) were able to make the most of extra possessions. Biola had 18 offensive rebounds, which was just seven fewer than the sum total of LSU's offensive and defensive grabs off the glass. Those o-boards resulted in 17 second-chance points. 

Rossow's 27 led all scorers. La Sierra had a guy get to 24, but shooting at a lower clip than Biola's no. 5. Michael Bagatourian (17) and Mosley (15) also got to double-digits for Biola. After that it became a total team effort with five other players scoring between five and eight points. 

"Tonight I was taking the shots I was comfortable taking and playing at my own pace," said Rossow. "Even though I was scoring well, I still wanted to get my team involved as much as possible." 

Bagatourian's big night came on 7-of-12 shooting and he also led the team in rebounding with nine, coming closer than anyone to a double-double. He and Mosley led Biola with five assists and each added a steal.

The win moves Biola to 1-2 overall. It sets the team up for a big matchup against Pomona-Pitzer (0-1) at home on Thursday. The Saghens are coming off a 26-3 season and beat Biola by almost 30 in the preseason one year ago. Tip-off is slated for 7:30 p.m.
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