NO. 2 POINT LOMA MEN'S BASKETBALL | Roster | Stats | Schedule
NO. 5 BIOLA MEN'S BASKETBALL | Roster | Stats | Schedule

HEAD-TO-HEAD: 1/18/20 BOX SCORE | 2/1/20 BOX SCORE

BIOLA	CATEGORY	POINT LOMA
77.7	Points-per-game	80.6
72.8	Opp. Points-per-game	71.1
.466	Field Goal Percentage	.477
.785	Free Throw Percentage	.752
7.0	3-PT Field Goals/gm	9.3
37.1	Rebounds-per-game	36.2
3.8	Blocks-per-game	2.7
14.7	Assists-per-game	15.0
5.7	Steals-per-game	6.7

AZUSA, Calif. --- As improbable as it may be, Friday night's historic victory over Azusa Pacific has no. 5-seed Biola Men's Basketball on the precipice of history with a chance to earn a first-ever NCAA Men's Basketball Championship berth with a win on Saturday.

Biola earned a spot in the PacWest Men's Basketball Championship game and is set up for a date against last year's champions and national runner-up, Point Loma (23-6). Similar to the Eagles, Point Loma found its way to this conference title game by erasing a major deficit in its semifinal matchup.

Saturday's game is scheduled for a 4:30 p.m. tip-off and will be held at the Felix Event Center in Azusa. General admission for the tournament is $12 with pre-sale tickets are available for purchase online for both general admission single tickets and all-tournament passes. Fans can purchase tickets online if they wish and print them at home to present at the door. 

Student tickets are available for $5, cash only at the door. Children 12 and under receive free admission.

Last night, Biola was down by 18 five minutes into its game and turned it around in the second half to win by two over bitter rival, and number one seed, Azusa Pacific. Point Loma trailed by as many as 15 points late in the first half, but managed to come all the way back to even by the third minute of the second half and then dominated Chaminade down the stretch to win their semifinal, 83-74.

The Eagles come into this game riding high after six-consecutive wins, with none bigger than last night's thriller which broke a 20-game winning streak for APU. Point Loma has also won six in a row, with its last loss coming back on Feb. 15 at the hands of Fresno Pacific. 

The Sea Lions clipped Biola in both matchups during the 2019-20 season to help PLNU to an 18-4 PacWest Conference record and no. 2 seeding in this tournament. PLNU won a nail biter over Biola in the teams' meeting inside of Golden Gymnasium around Christmastime. The Sea Lions outscored Biola 12-4 over the final 3:37 in that first meeting to turn a five-point Biola lead into the 81-78 final in favor of PLNU.

A month-and-a-half later the two teams tangled once again, this time inside of Chase Gym. The home confines were not incredibly friendly to Biola as PLNU managed a 71-50 victory, which was Biola's largest loss of the PacWest Conference season.

Biola scored just 19 second-half points in that game and had one of its worst shooting nights of the regular season, going for 34 percent from the floor and 24 percent beyond the arc. Point Loma was led that night by three men scoring in double figures with Darnell Robateau (18), Brock Mackenzie (16) and Kaden Anderson (14) going off. Anderson, an All-PacWest first-team award winner, also scored double-digits against Biola in the earlier meeting, with 16.

But, PLNU's depth is exhibited in that two others were among the Sea Lions' leading scorers in that initial meeting - Jordan May (13) and Sterling Somers (16). In yesterday's win PLNU shot 47 percent and made 13 three-point shots being led by Anderson and Mackenzie who both had exactly 20 points.

Point Loma is under first-year head coach Matt Logie, while Biola is, of course, led by 40th-year head coach Dr. Dave Holmquist. Robateau was named the PacWest Newcomer of the Year in the recent end-of-year conference awards. He also landed on the second team all-conference listing. Anderson was all-conference first team and May and Somers both landed on the third team. Point Loma was the only team with four all-conference nods this season.

A win for Biola would advance them to the NCAA West Region championships scheduled for March 13-17, likely hosted by UC San Diego.

Tip-off is scheduled for 4:30 p.m., following the women's championship game between No. 1 seed Hawaii Pacific (28-1, 22-0 PacWest) and No. 2 seed Azusa Pacific (25-4, 18-4 PacWest). The games will be streamed live at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/pacwest/. Complimentary live stats will also be published at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/pacwest/.