LA MIRADA, Calif. --- Head Coach Dr. Dave Holmquist enters this week with 949 wins during his Biola tenure (985 overall). He and the Eagles head north to face Holy Names for the first time this season and pursue a season-sweep of Academy of Art.

THIS WEEK: vs. Chaminade (14-8, 12-5 PacWest) - Thursday Feb. 13 at 7:30 p.m.; vs. Hawaii Pacific (9-13, 7-8 PacWest) - Saturday Feb. 15 at 3:30 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 (13-10, 9-8 PacWest) VS CHAMINADE (14-8, 12-5 PacWest): Thursday Feb. 13 at 7:30 p.m. \\ Live Stats \\ Live Video \\ Last Meeting: Biola wins 113-107 (4OT)
The Silverswords are coming off their arguably their best win of the season on the road against a powerful Point Loma team. Before that, they lost by only four to an Azusa Pacific team that had been dominant on their home court all season. And of course, the Silverswords also nearly upset Division I University of Georgia at the Maui Jim Maui Invitational back in November. However, the Eagles are the ones looking for the season sweep in the second matchup between Biola and Chaminade this year after grinding out a victory in a four-overtime thriller in Honolulu in January. The instant classic, Biola's first 4-OT game in 20 years, included a game-extending buzzer-beater from Chris Rossow in the second overtime and a dagger from Rossow to ice the victory in the game's final minute. Michael Bagatourian and Marquise Mosely played for almost the entire contest, leading the Eagles in scoring with 27 and 26 points respectively. Bagatourian has been on a roll lately even as the Eagles were on a three-game skid, and enters Thursday having scored double digits in each of his past six games and over 20 points in each of his past three. His 15.7 points per game puts him just behind Mosely for the Eagles lead in scoring average. Chaminade, meanwhile, is led in scoring by swingman Tyler Cartaino, who is averaging a cool 21 points-per-game. That average ticks up to 21.9 points-per-game in PacWest play, where he is joined by Kendall Small and Eliet Donley as the three Silverswords averaging double-digit scoring in their conference schedule. Small is a transfer to Chaminade from NCAA Division I University of the Pacific. He played his high school ball, and was a standout guard, at nearby Mayfair High School. The Eagles did a great job containing Cartaino back in January, holding him to just 17 points even though he played most of the game. Small and Donley, however, had 26 and 23 points respectively in that game, so the Eagles will again have their hands full on the defensive end against a dangerous Silverswords attack. A repeat of January's marathon may be unlikely, but another high-scoring game may be in order as Chaminade is averaging around 80 points-per-game in their three-game road trip so far. If the Eagles can pull out a victory, they will have not only swept the season series against one of the PacWest's best teams, but also become the fifth PacWest squad to hit the 10-win mark in conference play, joining Chaminade, Point Loma, APU and Concordia Irvine.


BIOLA (13-10, 9-8) VS HAWAII PACIFIC (9-13, 7-8 PacWest): Saturday Feb. 15 at 3:30 p.m. \\ Live Stats \\ Live Video \\ Last Meeting: HPU wins 73-68
The Eagles had a tough time shaking off the jet lag and holiday break the first time they played Hawaii Pacific this year, only mustering 68 points against the Sharks in a loss in Honolulu on Jan. 2. The rematch in Chase Gymnasium on Saturday has become a crucial game for both teams as they jostle for a spot in the PacWest's postseason conference tournament, which only takes the top six teams in the regular season standings. The Eagles and Sharks are right in the mix with Hawaii Hilo for the last two spots in the field. A Sharks win over Biola on Saturday would also give them the head-to-head advantage in case the two schools finish the season in a tie. The Eagles and Sharks have played each other pretty evenly since Biola started PacWest play in 2017. HPU currently leads that series 3-2, but virtually all of the games have been close, with the biggest margin of victory--14 points--coming in an Eagles victory at Chase Gymnasium last year. Marquise Mosley and Michael Bagatourian carried the load in January's loss, combining for 49 points, and another strong performance from the Eagles' two leading scorers should give them a chance in this one as well. Like Chaminade before them, the Sharks enter Biola in the middle of a Southern California road swing that sees them also face PacWest contenders Azusa Pacific, Concordia Irvine and Point Loma. They have held their own in conference thus far with a record just below .500. Forward Ronald Blain is leading the way for HPU, averaging 16.2 points-per-game in conference contests, the only Shark to post double-digit scoring numbers throughout their PacWest schedule. Blain dropped 17 on Biola during HPU's win back in January, as did Neema Namdar. Namdar had 15 of his 17 come via three-point field goals. He was 5-of-8 from deep to pace the Sharks' effort from deep. Both the 17 points and the five made threes are season-highs for Namdar. The senior transfer is top-10 in the conference in three-point shooting this season with 43 total hit threes. Biola has no players with more than 30 made threes.

ABOUT LAST WEEK: It was a week of extremes for the Eagles as they went 1-1 during their trip to the Bay Area. Biola began its week with a surprising loss at Holy Names, before playing arguably its best game of the season in a win over Academy of Art just a day and a half later. Michael Bagatourian continued his run of excellent play, averaging 22 points-per-game in the two contests and bringing down double-digit rebounds for the week. He scored 20 against Academy of Art and had three of the Eagles' season-high 14 made three-point shots.

ROAD TO AZUSA: Biola needs to finish inside of the top-6 in the conference in order to make this season's PacWest Conference tournament, held at the Felix Event Center at Azusa Pacific. The Eagles are in good shape at this point of the season, as they control their own destiny as of right now. Biola sits in fifth place in the conference standings to start off the week. Biola is three games back from Chaminade in fourth-place (12-5) and one game ahead of Hawaii Hilo and one-and-a-half games ahead of Hawaii Pacific. The Eagles will need to stay in front of both since they beat Biola once already this year and as of today would hold the tiebreaker over BU. A win against Hawaii Pacific this Saturday would go a long way towards helping Biola improve its chances at either the fifth or sixth spot.

FREE AND EASY: Biola is one of the top-20 free throw shooting teams in all of NCAA Division II this season. The Eagles sit 18th overall and tops in the PacWest Conference with a FT percentage of .782. It's the best Biola's shot from the charity stripe in over a decade. The best of the last 10 years was a .729 mark in 2015-16. That season the team went 30-4 overall and made 513 of their 704 free throw attempts. This year, the team is 302-for-386 from the line, led by three starters (Bagatourian, Chris Rossow, Jesse Elrod) making over 80 percent of their chances. Marquise Mosley has the most free throws made overall with 68 in 91 attempts (.747). Last week the Eagles' team FT percentage number skyrocketed upward thanks to high volume and high accuracy in its games against HNU and ART U. Biola missed just one free throw in each contest, going 21-for-22 against Holy Names and 12-for-13 against ART U. Biola has made 20+ free throws in four games so far this season. One such game was the Eagles' 4-OT winner over Chaminade (22-for-26).

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 (79)
Michael Bagatourian - 500 field goals made (368)
Michael Bagatourian - 200 free throws made (155)
Michael Bagatourian - 400 rebounds (414)
Michael Bagatourian - 200 assists (164)
Michael Bagatourian - 100 steals (75)
Michael Bagatourian - 2,500 minutes (2,412)
Tyus Dennis - 50 games played (39)
Marquise Mosley - 120 games played (117)
Marquise Mosley - 2,000 minutes (2,079)
Marquise Mosley - 300 field goals made (239)
Marquise Mosley - 200 free throws made (161)
Marquise Mosley - 150 rebounds (143)
Marquise Mosley - 200 assists (232)
Marquise Mosley - 75 steals (64)
Chris Rossow - 2,500 minutes (2,556)
Chris Rossow - 300 field goals made (283)
Chris Rossow - 100 3-point field goals made (91)
Chris Rossow - 250 free throws made (223)
Chris Rossow - 300 rebounds (298)
Chris Rossow - 350 assists (327)
Chris Rossow - 150 steals (113)
Alex Wright - 1,500 minutes (1,689)
Alex Wright - 200 field goals made (168)
Alex Wright - 300 rebounds (301)
Alex Wright - 100 assists (104)
*Transfer student-athletes include numbers from other NCAA institutions

NEXT WEEK: vs. Holy Names (8-15, 6-11 PacWest) - Saturday Feb. 22 at 2 p.m.