LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Biola Men's Basketball will head into its Thanksgiving break thankful for an 86-77 win and thankful that its Monday night opponent Saint Katherine stopped hitting unfathomable fade-away jump shots with regularity late in the second half.
Some tremendous, albeit a bit lucky, shooting from Saint Katherine over the first 10 or so minutes of the second half allowed the 2-5 Firebirds to have as much as a 11-point lead over Biola and make the Eagles and Biola fans sweat a little bit.
While the lucky shots built them the improbable lead, it was actually some really good basketball played in the first half by USK that allowed the game to even be close at halftime.
Biola had struggles with turnovers and rebounding on the defensive end throughout the first half, which resulted in the game being a close one 43-39 Biola at the halftime break. The Eagles committed eight turnovers in the first half, which is one more than they committed in the entirety of their game on Saturday night.
Saint Katherine was hustling on offense too, making things uncomfortable at times for BU. The Firebirds had seven offensive rebounds in the first half and 13 total in the game to force extra possessions that kept them in the ballgame despite shooting 13 percent worse than Biola.
USK began the second half on a 27-12 run, making seven of their eight field-goal attempts between 15:53 and 11:27 to build their 11-point lead and have Head Coach Dr. Dave Holmquist having to make some quick adjustments to keep his team in the game.
The biggest problem in the second half was not the turnovers or rebounds, but more so just how much success USK was having shooting the ball. So, the Eagles did enough to keep it as close as possible and then were ready to take full advantage when shots stopped falling for the Firebirds.
That moment came between the 11-minute mark and 7-minute mark in half two as Biola held USK 0-for-5 from the floor. During the same stretch Holmquist's Eagles were beginning to heat up on their side of the floor.
Led by a tenacious Marquise Mosley, the Eagles scored 16 points in the time USK was struggling, using a Whitten Dominguez three-point make to cap the run and put Biola ahead 71-68. It was the Eagles' first lead since the 19:13 mark.
Dominguez' three had to be the shot of the night, as he scooped it up after it bounced out of Mosley's hands and immediately went into his jumper to beat the shot clock by a hair.
Now both teams had their runs and it was time to duke it out until the end of the game. Or so we thought.
Instead, one Jesse Elrod jumper was the only scoring by either team for the next three minutes or so until Michael Bagatourian made two free throws and buried a three-point shot to make it 78-70 BU with 4:11 to play.
Biola dug in defensively, not making any easy looks for Saint Katherine, who's up-tempo offense was gassed and no longer able to sustain its pace in the final minutes.
The Eagles maintained a lead of between six and nine points until the final whistle. Zanen Zeller and Alex Wright each scored four to provide all of the team's final eight points after Bags' three-pointer.
Biola ended up shooting just over 55 percent for the night, with just five of the team's 34 field goals coming from beyond the arc. The Firebirds shot 10 percent better in half two than they had in half one, but the late cold stretch made it just a 42 percent total for the game.
Biola won the narrow rebound battle with 39 to USK's 34. Bagatourian and Wright had eight each to lead that effort. Biola cut down turnovers in the second half, but still committed more than its opponent (14-13). It's the first time this season Biola's had more turnovers than its opponent and still won the game.
Mosley, who was a huge part of the comeback effort with 14 second-half points, led Biola in scoring for the third time this season. He had a new season-high of 23 points. This came despite the fact the senior went 0-for-6 in the final nine minutes.
Bagatourian (15), Chris Rossow (13) and Wright (12) all also topped 10 points for this Eagles team. Rossow scored all of his points in the first half, playing in just 22 minutes in this one.
Elrod held down the fort in the painted area on this night after some early turnover trouble from running mate Solomon Ruddell. Elrod had eight points and four rebounds, making all of his free throws and half his shots. His biggest contribution, though, was his five blocks. The Eagles had eight blocks, compared to zero from USK. Biola had eight blocks and was blocked zero times in their last outing as well. They hold a 23-3 advantage in that category the last three times out.
Biola had a 48-38 advantage in the paint and also held a decent advantage on points scored on the fast break (16-10). The second stat is interesting considering USK's obsession with pushing the tempo through the first 30 or so minutes.
The win allows Biola to finish its preseason 4-2 following a perfect 4-0 run at home in the last eight days. Saint Katherine falls to 2-6. The Eagles have off until their PacWest Conference opener on December 5 at Notre Dame de Namur.
