LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Men's Basketball returns home this week following two close victories up north against Notre Dame de Namur and Dominican. The Eagles look to improve their PacWest record to 3-0 on Tuesday when they take on a talented Hawaii Hilo squad fresh off a win against previously undefeated Azusa Pacific team. They will then head south to take on the reigning PacWest Champion Point Loma Sea Lions who have started out conference play 2-0 against the same opponents Biola faced in the Bay Area. 

THIS WEEK: Hawaii Hilo (2-2. 1-1 PacWest) - Tuesday Dec.10 at 7:30 p.m.; Point Loma (6-2, 2-0 PacWest) - Saturday Dec. 14 at 4 p.m.

MULTIMEDIA: Live video and live statistics will be available for both games. See the links below for the direct link for each game. Biola offers free live video of all home events at portal.stretchinternet.com/biola.

HAWAII HILO (2-2, 1-1 PacWest) AT BIOLA (6-2, 2-0 PacWest): Tuesday Dec. 10 at 7:30 p.m. \\ Live Stats \\ Live Video 
Following a long stretch of no games at home that included two matches up in the Bay Area, the Eagles finally return to Chase Gymnasium for a PacWest matchup against the Hawaii Hilo Vulcans. The Vulcans are off to a 1-1 start in conference play, with an upset win at home against Azusa Pacific, followed by a loss at the preseason conference favorites Concordia Irvine. Hilo is led by two seniors in guard Jordan Graves and forward Kupaa Harrison. Through four games, Harrison leads the Vulcans with 79 points, followed by Graves with 72. In Hilo's upset win over Azusa Pacific, Graves shone on both offense and defense, earning PacWest player of the week for his six-steal game and also drilling the winning three pointer with four seconds left to lift his team to victory. Harrison has been a consistent force down low for the Vulcans, as he scored 22 points in the win over APU and 15 at Concordia to help Hilo stay close throughout the game. Heading into Tuesday's matchup, Biola leads the all-time series 3-1, including a two-game streak that Biola secured last year with a close two-point win on the road followed by a 16 point victory at home. 

BIOLA (6-2, 2-0) AT POINT LOMA (6-2, 2-0 PacWest): Saturday Dec. 14 at 4 p.m. \\ Live Stats \\ Live Video ($8.95)
Biola travels south to San Diego on Saturday to take on the Point Loma Sea Lions. PLNU is off to an identical start to conference play as the Eagles as both games came against the Eagles first two opponents in NDNU and Dominican. In their first game against Dominican, the Sea Lions took a 9-point vwin on the road against a Penguins squad that pushed Biola to the brink before the Eagles took a narrow two-point victory. In their second matchup in the bay against Notre Dame de Namur, PLNU played excellent basketball en route to a 93-51 beatdown of the Argonauts. Biola took down NDNU as well by a score of 88-79. The Sea Lions are led by two forwards that both hail from the state of Washington in senior Sterling Somers and sophomore Kaden Anderson. The 6-foot-8-inch Anderson leads the team in total points thus far with 127 followed by the 6-foot-5-inch Somers with 117. In the win against Dominican, Somers caught fire with 25 points on 11-for-14 shooting to lead his team to victory. The Eagles will look to snap a four-game losing streak to the Sea Lions as they have not defeated PLNU since joined the PacWest. In their most recent matchup last year, the Eagles stayed close against the eventual conference champions and NCAA Division II finalists before ultimately falling by 68-65. Despite their recent struggles against Point Loma, Biola holds a 60-35 edge over the Sea Lions all-time and will look to earn their first PacWest win over PLNU on Saturday. 
ABOUT LAST WEEK: Biola got a pair of scares last week as PacWest Conference play began, but the Eagles wiggled out of trouble to prolong their now six-game winning streak. The final score does not reflect it too much, but Biola really struggled for much of its game against Notre Dame de Namur as the week began on Thursday. NDNU led the game for over 25 minutes and it was not until there was four minutes left that Biola finally took a lead for good. Alex Wright and Marquise Mosley led the offense in that game, which was focused largely outside of the painted area. The Eagles scored 60 of their 88 points from mid-range or further, led by 28 from Wright and 24 from Mosley. Jesse Elrod and those two both set new season-bests in leading Biola's second-half comeback that night. Elrod played a similar role, scoring 16 points, in a somewhat similar comeback two nights later at Dominican. Just like on Thursday, Biola got out to a very slow start against the Dominican Penguins. The hosts led by five at halftime before a quick Biola surge out of the break put BU on the top. A Biola cold stretch let Dominican re-take the lead until Elrod scored four-straight buckets for BU to make it look like the Eagles would be back in the driver's seat. Unfortunately, after Elrod's hot stretch the Eagles went scoreless for the next eight minutes and were looking helpless headed into the final minute and change of the game. Thankfully, the team found its rebounding form in the final few possessions and Mosley hit an improbable baseline jumper with five seconds left to put Biola ahead on its final possession. Whitten Dominguez came up with a steal to ice the game and keep Biola perfect in its most nervous game yet.

ON THE RISE: As of this week Biola Men's Basketball is receiving votes in the D2SIDA NCAA Division II West Region rankings. After extending its win streak to six games with wins over Dominican and Notre Dame de Namur, Biola received seven points in the week four poll. That point total is good for 13th in the west region. The rankings include the top-10 and any teams receiving votes. It's the first time Biola's appeared on the regional rankings since December 2017. See the full regional rankings below.

2019–20 DII West Region Men's Basketball Media Poll Sponsored by D2SIDA (Poll #5)
Rank School
1. UC San Diego (5) 
2. Cal Poly Pomona (1) 
3. Point Loma 6-2
4. Concordia University Irvine 7-3
5. Simon Fraser 7-1
6. Alaska Anchorage 8-2
7. Chaminade 3-3
8. Azusa Pacific 6-3
T9. Cal State East Bay 7-3
T9. Cal State San Bernardino 5-2
 
Others Receiving Votes: Chico State (6-3)—8; Western Oregon (5-2)—8; Biola (6-2)—7; Cal State Dominguez Hills (7-3)—4; Seattle Pacific (5-4)—1.

HOLM-QUEST FOR 1,000: Head Coach Dr. Dave Holmquist enters his 40th season as the head coach at Biola this season. He's coached at BU since the 1978-79 season, but took a few years off here and there along the way. The legendary coach begins the year with 937 wins at Biola and 973 wins overall to sit on the doorstep to history. Holmquist's side would need quite the remarkable year to get him to 1,000 this season, but chances are he could grasp 1,000 total victories before the end of 2020. He would be just the fifth coach in four-year college men's basketball to reach the 1,000-win plateau. The most recent to cross the threshold was Jefferson University's Herb Magee. Magee, who's coached the NCAA Division II Rams (formerly Philadelphia University) since 1967, eclipsed the 1,000-win total on February 7, 2015. Others with 1,000 officially recognized coaching victories are Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, McKendree's Harry Statham (NCAA III) and Oregon Tech's Danny Miles (NAIA). Holmquist or Syracuse Head Coach Jim Boeheim should be the next to hit 1,000. Entering 2019-20, Boeheim has 946 officially recognized wins in his coaching career, which began back in 1976. He had 101 wins vacated by the NCAA, so when he reaches 1,000 he will technically be doing so for the second time. His Orange have averaged right at 20 wins-per-year over the last five seasons.

IT'S REAL STARTING NOW: The 2019-20 Biola Men's Basketball season has added significance in that it's the Eagles' first as full members in NCAA Division II. Back on July 12 the Biola campus received a call from the NCAA Division II Membership Committee notifying BU of its successful completion of the membership transition process. The change became official as of September 1 and now Biola is officially eligible for NCAA postseason play, national and regional rankings and official NCAA postseason honors for the first time. The Eagles are also now eligible to compete in the PacWest Conference tournament for the first time. The top-6 teams after the regular season qualify for the conference tournament. Biola finished in a tie for fifth last season and would have been into the postseason tournament had the Eagles been eligible. Azusa Pacific will host this year's tournament between March 5-7. This year Biola will also hope to finish top-8 in the NCAA Division II West Region and earn a spot in the NCAA West Regional and ultimately the national tournament. Last season, Point Loma made a postseason run all the way to the NCAA Division II title game, setting the precedent for a PacWest team to make a deep journey through the upper echelon of NCAA Division II. The Sea Lions lost in the title game to Northwest Missouri State, which went a perfect 38-0 last season to earn their second title in the last three years. The Bearcats are already 7-0 this season to boast a remarkable 45-game winning streak. They have an incomprehensible scoring margin of +27.3 so far this season. The PacWest had three teams (PLNU, Concordia Irvine, Chaminade) make the eight-team west regional.

UPCOMING MILESTONES:
Michael Bagatourian - 75 games played (64)
Michael Bagatourian - 300 field goals made (274)
Michael Bagatourian - 200 free throws made (115)
Michael Bagatourian - 300 rebounds (288)
Michael Bagatourian - 200 assists (128)
Michael Bagatourian - 100 steals (62)
Michael Bagatourian - 2,000 minutes (1,865)
Cade Carroll - 1,000 minutes (515)
Cade Carroll - 100 field goals made (63)
Cade Carroll - 200 rebounds (107)
Tyus Dennis - 50 games played (34)
Marquise Mosley - 100 games played (103)
Marquise Mosley - 1,500 minutes (1,603)
Marquise Mosley - 150 field goals made (164)
Marquise Mosley - 100 free throws made (119)
Marquise Mosley - 100 rebounds (115)
Marquise Mosley - 200 assists (176)
Marquise Mosley - 75 steals (50)
Chris Rossow - 2,000 minutes (2,054)
Chris Rossow - 300 field goals made (229)
Chris Rossow - 100 3-point field goals made (68)
Chris Rossow - 200 free throws made (172)
Chris Rossow - 300 rebounds (248)
Chris Rossow - 300 assists (288)
Chris Rossow - 100 steals (91)
Alex Wright - 1,000 minutes (1,162)
Alex Wright - 100 field goals made (118)
Alex Wright - 200 rebounds (172)
Alex Wright - 100 assists (78)
*Transfer student-athletes include numbers from other NCAA institutions

NEXT WEEK: vs Fresno Pacific (3-5, 1-1 PacWest) - Saturday, December 21 at 3:30 p.m.