LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Things get real this week inside of Chase Gymnasium as Biola hosts two of its biggest rivals and the top-2 teams in the PacWest standings, Point Loma and Azusa Pacific.

THIS WEEK: vs Point Loma (15-3. 11-1 PacWest) - Wednesday Jan. 29 at 7:30 p.m.; vs Azusa Pacific (15-3, 10-2 PacWest) - Saturday Feb. 1 at 7:30 p.m.

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 (12-7, 8-5 PacWest) VS POINT LOMA (15-3, 11-1 PacWest): Wednesday Jan. 29 at 7:30 p.m. \\ Live Stats \\ Live Video \\ Last Meeting: Point Loma wins 81-78
Biola will get its second crack at Point Loma on Wednesday night inside of Chase Gymnasium. The Eagles lost by just one possession earlier in the season at Point Loma's Golden Gymnasium. Since then, Point Loma has gone 7-1, winning their last seven contests all in a row. Their only loss during that stretch came to Biola's Saturday opponent, Azusa Pacific. The last time these two met was certainly a thriller. The Eagles used a run late in the second half to hold a five-point lead with just over three minutes to play, reversing what was nearly a double-digit lead from the Sea Lions. But, Point Loma went 7-for-8 from the free-throw line and 2-for-2 from the floor over the final three minutes and change to steal the three-point victory. Biola, by comparison, had just four total chances to score, going 2-for-4 but also turning the ball over three times in the final three minutes. Biola will need to fix its tendency to turn the ball over if it wants to have a shot at knocking off the conference leaders this week. The Eagles have coughed the ball up 12.6 times per-game this season. They had 13 turnovers in the game at Point Loma and averaged 13 turnovers (14/12) in the team's two wins last week. As mentioned, Point Loma is on a seven-game winning streak. The Sea Lions have averaged 77.4 points-per-game during that run, and they've allowed their opponents just 64.6 points-per-game on average since then. They're a team that's really turned up its defensive intensity as of late, because in the 11 games (8-3) they played before the recent winning streak the team gave up 75.3 points-per-game on average. Five different players have averaged at least 10 points-per-game during this seven-game streak, led by Kaden Anderson's 14.6 points-per-game. Anderson has made 20 field goals in the last three times out. He's dropped 23, 18 and 12 to help PLNU beat Concordia Irvine, Dominican and Fresno Pacific. The sophomore leads the team with 14.3 ppg this season and is tied for the team-lead with 7.1 rebounds-per-game. 

BIOLA (12-7, 8-5) VS AZUSA PACIFIC (15-3, 10-2 PacWest): Saturday Feb. 1 at 7:30 p.m. \\ Live Stats \\ Live Video \\ Tickets \\ Last Meeting: APU wins 87-66 \\ PROMOTION: WEAR RED. FREE SANDWICHES courtesy JERSEY MIKE'S LA HABRA and Biola SGA, Other Biola Giveaways
TICKETING INFO: Biola students, staff, faculty and alumni are FREE. Students can get tickets (wristbands) from in front of the cafeteria at lunchtime throughout the week. Staff/Faculty can pick up tickets from HR. Alumni Relations will hand out tickets on-site the night of.
The Cornerstone Cup returns to Biola's campus on Saturday night as Biola hosts Azusa Pacific for the third time in the PacWest Conference era. The two teams have split the first two meetings at Chase Gym with Biola winning in 2017-18 and APU taking the win last season. Azusa Pacific used production from Selom Mawugbe and deadly three-point shooting to beat Biola two weeks ago at Felix Event Center in the first meeting of the year between the two sides. Azusa Pacific is currently in second-place in the PacWest Conference. They've won 10 games in a row, dating back to the beginning of December. The Cougars' last loss came in Hawaii where Chaminade clipped them in a thrilling 96-85 game. Just like Biola, APU went 1-2 on its Hawaiian road trip. The Cougars, though, have not lost a single conference contest in the contiguous United States. Azusa Pacific has won each of the last three meetings between these two teams and nine of the last 12 overall to take a 67-55 lead in the all-time series. In the last meeting, Mawugbe dropped 25 points and transfer guard Brennan Rymer went for 24 points. That game was Rymer's season-high and was powered by eight three-point makes. He helped APU make its 16 total three-pointers in that game. Biola's three-point output has increased since the road APU matchup, and will need to continue to be there for BU to have a chance in this matchup.

NOTE: Campus Safety encourages all attendees to not bring a bag with them on this night. All bags will be subject to search.

ABOUT LAST WEEK: Biola came out ready to play and picked up a pair of wins in both of its first two home games of this four-game home stand. The Eagles topped Notre Dame de Namur 74-53 in the opener, and then went on to dismiss Dominican by a score of 67-45. The wins complete season sweeps over both opponents. Biola's defense stole the show against Dominican on the weekend. The Eagles limited the Penguins to just 12 first-half points and only allowed Dominican a 27 percent clip from the field in the game. The Eagles made 11 more field goals than Dominican, out-rebounded the Penguins by double-digits and added five blocks and five steals in a dominant effort.

WEEKLY HONORS: Michael Bagatourian was named PacWest Conference Defender of the Week for his efforts in Biola's wins over Notre Dame de Namur and Dominican. The junior went for a double-double average last week, scoring 17.5 points-per-game and 12.5 rebounds-per-game as Biola won both of its games by over 20 points. Bagatourian was top-five in the conference in scoring, rebounding, steals, three-point shots and assists. Alex Wright was named the Hirtle Callaghan Biola Athlete of the Week for his work alongside Bagatourian. Wright averaged 15.5 points-per-game and 9.0 rebounds-per-game in the wins. He shot 11-for-16 (.688) for the week to lead the team in field goal efficiency. He also matched Bagatourian's seven assists. Both men were second only to Marquise Mosley and Chris Rossow who both had nine dimes.

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 (74)
Michael Bagatourian - 500 field goals made (333)
Michael Bagatourian - 200 free throws made (133)
Michael Bagatourian - 400 rebounds (371)
Michael Bagatourian - 200 assists (150)
Michael Bagatourian - 100 steals (69)
Michael Bagatourian - 2,500 minutes (2,237)
Tyus Dennis - 50 games played (36)
Marquise Mosley - 120 games played (113)
Marquise Mosley - 2,000 minutes (1,956)
Marquise Mosley - 300 field goals made (224)
Marquise Mosley - 200 free throws made (146)
Marquise Mosley - 150 rebounds (131)
Marquise Mosley - 200 assists (219)
Marquise Mosley - 75 steals (62)
Chris Rossow - 2,500 minutes (2,437)
Chris Rossow - 300 field goals made (273)
Chris Rossow - 100 3-point field goals made (84)
Chris Rossow - 250 free throws made (213)
Chris Rossow - 300 rebounds (291)
Chris Rossow - 350 assists (318)
Chris Rossow - 150 steals (106)
Alex Wright - 1,500 minutes (1,551)
Alex Wright - 200 field goals made (155)
Alex Wright - 300 rebounds (266)
Alex Wright - 100 assists (101)
*Transfer student-athletes include numbers from other NCAA institutions

NEXT WEEK: at Holy Names (5-13; 3-9 PacWest) - Thursday, February 6, 2020 at 7:30 p.m.; at Academy of Art (5-14; 3-9 PacWest) - Saturday, February 8, 2020 at 3:30 p.m.