LA MIRADA, Calif. --- After an 11-day break that seemingly lasted forever, Biola Men's Basketball is back to PacWest Conference action with a grueling three-game Hawaiian road trip to start the new decade. The Eagles are at Hawaii Pacific on Jan. 2 to begin the trip and then hit Chaminade (Jan. 4) and Hawaii Hilo (Jan. 6) before heading back home for seven in a row in the Southern California area. 

THIS WEEK: at Hawaii Pacific (3-7. 1-2 PacWest) - Thursday Jan. 2 at 8:30 p.m. PT; at Chaminade (6-4, 4-1 PacWest) - Saturday Jan. 4 at 5 p.m. PT; at Hawaii HIlo (3-5, 1-3 PacWest) - Monday Jan. 6 at 9:30 p.m. PT

MULTIMEDIA: Live video and live statistics will be available for all 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.

BIOLA (8-3, 4-1 PacWest) AT HAWAII PACIFIC (3-7, 1-2 PacWest): Thursday Jan. 2 at 8:30 p.m. PT \\ Live Stats \\ Live Video ($7.95)
Biola begins its three-game whirlwind at Hawaii Pacific in a Thursday evening game. The Eagles face Hawaii Pacific for the first time this season, looking to improve upon their 2-2 record against the Sharks in the PacWest era. HPU won both meetings in 2017-18 and Biola took both games last season, winning by at least 10 points in each outing. Biola controls the all-time series 3-2, with a win in the only pre-PacWest competition during the Eagles' historic 1981-82 season. Hawaii Pacific comes into this meeting with losses in each of its last two games and six losses in the last seven outings overall. The only recent win for HPU was an 80-72 victory over Dominican on Dec. 16. Both of the Sharks' most recent contests came outside of PacWest play as they faced Arkansas-Monticello and Simon Fraser just before Christmas. Both games were double-digit losses. HPU is led by senior forward Ronald Blain. He's the only player on the team who's averaging better than 10 points-per-game (15.2) and has scored 20 or more in four of his last five outings. Blain shot a season-high 71 percent (10-of-14) in HPU's loss to Simon Fraser, scoring 22 points. Biola managed to hold Blain at bay last season in the two meetings between these teams. He shot just 4-for-21 in the two games, scoring a total of 11 points. If the Eagles can lock him up again this go-around the team should be in good shape. Keeping a handle on the ball has been the primary issue for Hawaii Pacific so far this season. They've committed 178 turnovers in just 10 games played, which is more than 40 more than their opponents have committed so far this season. HPU has had at least 14 turnovers in each of their last three times out, including 21 against Simon Fraser on Dec. 21. Biola has 16, 13 and 13 turnovers in its last three times out, but still has a positive turnover margin for the season. Look for that to be an area of importance in this game. Michael Bagatourian and Alex Wright both posted double-figure performances against HPU last season.

BIOLA (8-3, 4-1) AT CHAMINADE (6-4, 4-1 PacWest): Saturday Jan. 4 at 5 p.m. PT \\ Live Stats \\ Live Video ($9.00)
On paper, Chaminade seems to be the toughest test on this Hawaiian road trip. The Silverswords are 6-4 this season but tied in the conference standings with Biola at 4-1 overall. Biola will be the 'Swords' next matchup as they do not have a mid-week game this week. Just like the Eagles, Chaminade's last game was back on Dec. 21. The 'Swords beat Dominican 90-59 in that game as part of three-consecutive blowout wins over the NorCal schools. They beat NDNU 104-52 and Holy Names 90-64. They've won four of their last five overall, all in-conference games. The only loss in conference was a surprising one at Academy of Art. The Silverswords lost 75-68 as ART U was powered by a strong first half. Chaminade's other Pacwest win was over a good Azusa Pacific team. The 'Swords have the second-best offense in the league (81.1) and lead the conference in scoring margin (+10.9) thanks to the top defense in the league (70.2). Biola has the third-best defense (71.6) and fifth-best offense (79.6), equating to the third-best scoring margin (8.0). Biola has yet to beat Chaminade in PacWest Conference play, going 0-3 against the team since the start of the 2017-18 season. The second meeting between the two sides last season was the closest in the PacWest era, with Chaminade winning by just six points (84-78). Chaminade owns the lead in the all-time series with a 5-3 record against Biola. This year, they're led by an experienced bunch of players that helped lead the team to a regional berth in 2018-19. Their top player is Tyler Cartaino who earned all-conference first team honors a year ago after sitting out 2017-18 as a redshirt. He seems primed to repeat that all-conference effort this season as he's leading the entire conference in scoring at 19.9 points-per-game and is top-50 in the country with 82 made field goals. Cartaino averaged 20 points-per-game against Biola in Chaminade's two wins against the Eagles last season. Chaminade has three players scoring double figures on average with Kendall Small (11.5) and Andre Arissol (11.4) joining Cartaino. Small does a bit of everything for Chaminade, leading the team in assists (5.6/game) and rebounding (7.1/game). He had a triple-double earlier this season against NDNU, scoring 12 points, dishing 11 assists and having 11 rebounds. He's a senior transfer from NCAA Division I, University of the Pacific. His assist number leads the conference. This game will pit the conference's best shooting team (Biola - .493) against the team with the top defense (Chaminade holds opponents to .421 on average). It will also feature the top two rebounding teams in the league. Biola has the slightest edge possible with 38.5 rebounds-per-game to Chaminade's 38.3 number. However, the Eagles' are just behind the Silverswords if you factor out non-conference games (but the teams are still 1-2). Chaminade has an exciting non-conference schedule each year, due to the fact the school hosts the Maui Invitational featuring top NCAA Division I competition. This season the 'Swords had the chance to play Kansas, UCLA and Georgia in countable contests. Those are three of the Silverswords' four losses on the season. Chaminade almost upset SEC team Georgia, losing by just three.
BIOLA (8-3, 4-1) AT HAWAII HILO (3-5, 1-3 PacWest): Monday Jan. 6 at 6:30 p.m. PT \\ Live Stats \\ Live Video ($7.95) \\ Last Meeting: Biola wins 74-56
This matchup comes at the end of a busy week for both of these teams. It's the third game in five days for both teams. Hawaii Hilo hosts Fresno Pacific and Point Loma who're also getting their Hawaiian road trip out of the way. Coming into this week Hawaii Hilo has losses in four of their last five ball games. The only recent win came against Saint Martin's (77-70), which is a team that made the NCAA West Regional a year ago. Hilo played a good game last time out, losing by a basket to Alaska Anchorage (66-64). Biola's won three in a row against Hawaii Hilo and have wins in all but one of the meetings between the two sides in the PacWest Conference era. The only loss was a blowout 80-55 loss in Hilo back in December 2017. Since then Biola's posted 79-77, 79-63 and 74-56 victories over the Vulcans. This is already the second meeting between the two teams this season with the Eagles winning 74-56 over UHH inside of Chase Gym at the beginning of December. Marquise Mosley, Jesse Elrod and Bagatourian all had at least 15 points in that outing and Biola out-rebounded the Vulcans 54-29 to cruise to victory. Hawaii Hilo shot just 33 percent in the game and was 3-for-19 from deep. Hawaii Hilo is in the bottom half of the PacWest in offense (71.9) and defense (76.3) and has made fewer three-point shots than all other conference teams this year (40). They're also last in the league in rebounding with 28.3 rebounds-per-game on average. Sasa Vuksanovic had the biggest performance for Hawaii Hilo in the loss at Biola earlier this year. The big man had a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds and shot 50 percent from the field. Kupaa Harrison has been the top weapon for UHH all season, but Biola did a good job of limiting him to 5-of-16 shooting in that outing. 
 
ABOUT LAST WEEK: Biola is coming off a long break following a really fantastic stretch of basketball. Last time out for BU was the Eagles hosting Fresno Pacific four days before Christmas. Biola earned a 10-point win over the Sunbirds, powered by a season-high 11 made three-point shots. Including that game, Biola has wins in eight of its last nine ball games, to sit just a half-game back from first place in the PacWest. The Eagles' only loss in the last month-and-a-half was an 81-78 road heartbreaker at Point Loma, who is also 4-1 in PacWest play.

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. The PacWest had three teams (PLNU, Concordia Irvine, Chaminade) make the eight-team west regional.

UPCOMING MILESTONES:
Michael Bagatourian - 75 games played (66)
Michael Bagatourian - 300 field goals made (284)
Michael Bagatourian - 200 free throws made (118)
Michael Bagatourian - 400 rebounds (309)
Michael Bagatourian - 200 assists (1236)
Michael Bagatourian - 100 steals (62)
Michael Bagatourian - 2,000 minutes (1,937)
Tyus Dennis - 50 games played (34)
Marquise Mosley - 120 games played (104)
Marquise Mosley - 2,000 minutes (1,637)
Marquise Mosley - 200 field goals made (169)
Marquise Mosley - 200 free throws made (123)
Marquise Mosley - 150 rebounds (116)
Marquise Mosley - 200 assists (183)
Marquise Mosley - 75 steals (51)
Chris Rossow - 2,500 minutes (2,130)
Chris Rossow - 300 field goals made (240)
Chris Rossow - 100 3-point field goals made (72)
Chris Rossow - 200 free throws made (181)
Chris Rossow - 300 rebounds (255)
Chris Rossow - 300 assists (293)
Chris Rossow - 100 steals (92)
Alex Wright - 1,500 minutes (1,234)
Alex Wright - 200 field goals made (123)
Alex Wright - 200 rebounds (190)
Alex Wright - 100 assists (83)
*Transfer student-athletes include numbers from other NCAA institutions

NEXT WEEK: vs Academy of Art (4-7, 2-2 PacWest) - Saturday, January 11 at 3 p.m.