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The Official Athletic Site of the Biola University Eagles

Scoreboard

Jesse Elrod Shooting
Kyla McGuire
78
Biola BIO 7-3,3-1 PacWest
81
Winner Point Loma PL 8-2,4-0 PacWest
Biola BIO
7-3,3-1 PacWest
78
Final
81
Point Loma PL
8-2,4-0 PacWest
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Biola BIO 37 41 78
Point Loma PL 41 40 81

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

In It All The Way

Biola battled hard, despite being down one starter, but came up three points short at Point Loma.

SAN DIEGO, Calif. --- Down its starting point guard and facing the defending NCAA Division II runners-up, a team Biola's not been able to beat in eight years, the Eagles showed no fear and nearly came away victorious down at Point Loma.

The Eagles led by five points with 3:37 to play after taking advantage of a long scoreless streak from the hosts, but Point Loma outscored Biola 12-4 over the final 217 ticks of the clock to take an 81-78 victory and dash Biola's hopes of a third conference road win. 

The result was not what BU would hope for, but the type of game it was most definitely proved Biola belongs in the talks to determined the top three or four teams in the conference. 

The majority of the damage done for and by the Sea Lions came in the final minute of play. The teams were tied at 76 with 1:18 left, but turnovers put Biola in a spot where it had to continually foul down the stretch and PLNU scored each of its last five points at the charity stripe. 

The free throw line is a big reason Biola had a fighting chance in this game to begin with, especially during the first half when Biola was not hitting its shots with consistency.

Point Loma outscored Biola 41-37 in the first 20 minutes to hold just a four-point lead at the break. Thirteen of the Eagles' 37 first-half points came at the free-throw line (13-for-14). That consistent foul shooting was important since Point Loma was shooting almost 20 percent better from the floor.

Jesse Elrod was the major player in the up-and-down first half for Biola. He had 15 of his team-leading 22 points over the first 20 minutes. Six of those came courtesy his perfect 6-for-6 performance at the free-throw line. Point Loma took note of that and didn't send him to the line once in the second half. The 22 points is a season-high for the junior forward. It's the fourth game in a row he's set a new season-high.

Point Loma opened the second-half very well, doubling their halftime lead almost instantly and leading by as many as nine, which happened about six minutes in.

Then the Sea Lions' shooters went cold and Biola took advantage. A three-pointed from Michael Bagatourian began the run, then some help from Elrod and five-straight points from Chris Rossow had the game back in reach at 61-58.

Those five points were part of a 15-point effort from Rossow. It was his most points scored since he had 15 against Pomona-Pitzer back on Nov. 21.

After that there came a two-minute stretch where Whitten Dominguez took the ball and took over the game for the Eagles. He scored on three of four trips down the floor, hitting two baseline layups and one triple to turn a 65-62 disadvantage into a 72-67 lead for Biola. 

Just after that Elrod hit a big three-pointer, one of two for him in the game and the Eagles achieved their largest lead of the game at 74-69. 

The lead wouldn't last due to PLNU going 13-for-14 on their second-half free-throw opportunities and Biola coughing the ball up three times in the last three minutes.

Elrod (22), Dominguez (18), Rossow (15) and Bagatourian (10) all scored in double figures and Biola would end up out-rebounding the Sea Lions 35-26 led by nine from Alex Wright.

Despite Biola having the rebounding advantage PLNU was afforded six more shots at the basket throughout the night, mainly due to BU turnovers, and shot at a higher clip (50% - 46%) to lead the hosts to victory. They spread their scoring incredibly efficiently with four different player scoring between 12 and 16 points. 

Biola drops its first contest since the opening week of the season to fall to 7-3 (3-1 PacWest). They have nearly a whole week off to prepare to host Fresno Pacific (3-6, 1-2 PacWest) on Saturday, December 21.
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