LA MIRADA, Calif. --- The air conditioning inside of Chase Gymnasium was recently fixed, and in the early stages of the game on Saturday it seemed to cool off the building, as well as the Biola offense. 

Thankfully, Alex Wright, Maximo Milovich and Solomon Ruddell steadied the ship and warmed things up for BU to enable the Eagles to come-from-behind and control the second half during its 70-65 win over Holy Names.

"A dub is a dub," said Wright.

He certainly is not wrong there. Despite a rocky start and some tense moments late, Biola showed its resolve as an experienced, playoff-caliber side and snatched a key victory to stay perfect in PacWest play.

"I think we were ready to play, but I don't think we had the same edge on Thursday night," said Head Coach Dr. Dave Holmquist. "We got behind, closed it to one at the half and then did a bunch of good things in the second half. They (HNU) played hard, they played good defense and I thought they were a good team. 

The opening drive for Biola made it seem as if the night was going to be smooth sailing, just as previous results would've indicated. Jesse Elrod sealed things off under the basket to allow Michael Bagatourian to slash inside and sit wide open to receive a baseline pass from Chris Rossow and finish with a standing dunk.

That was the high point of the first 12 minutes or so, though, because Holy Names' defensive intensity created miss-after-miss-after-miss for BU for a long stretch to help HNU establish a large advantage early. The Hawks were not missing on the other end of the floor, either, hitting five triples in the first 10 minutes to help them lead by anywhere from 6-12 points for much of the first half. 

The Hawk lead sat at eight points, 27-19, with 6:24 remaining in the first half, which is when Wright, Milovich and Ruddell helped begin to turn the tide for Biola. Milovich and Ruddell were both called upon for big efforts in the first as both Bagatourian and Elrod were hampered by foul trouble. Bagatourian was limited to just three first-half minutes, which is not what you'd hope for when the guy scored 36 just two days ago.

"It was important to not try to do too much. Michael and Jesse are a lot of our offense and a lot of our heart, too. I had to pick my spots wisely and keep getting to the basket too," said Wright. "Maxi is huge all season long. He kept getting those offensive rebounds tonight. Solomon also played some huge minutes tonight."

Biola would outscore HNU 15-8 over those final six-plus minutes of the first half to bring it back within one at halftime. Still, though, 2-0 was the Eagles' only lead of the half, which made the home crowd a bit nervous.

Wright and Ruddell accounted for 13 of Biola's 15 points in that solid late-half run. Wright was picking his shots with precision, missing only two attempts over the final 14 minutes of the first half.

Milovich was giving Biola extra opportunities to score throughout the latter stages of the first half. His rebounding was tough, but he was also a fantastic facilitator racking up five first-half assists.

Milovich would be the one to finally bring Biola back to a tie when he made a layup 40 seconds into the second half to make the game 36-36. Chris Rossow would follow that with a steal-and-score situation to give the Eagles their first lead since the first bucket. 

That lead would swell to eight points as Biola had a 10-0 run in the first four minutes of the frame, with six of those 10 points coming from mr. Rossow.

"You have to learn how to win close games," said Wright. "We've had a lot of success the last few years winning close games, so it's nice to get some success in them early in the season."

That lengthy run early in the period gave Biola the breathing room to find its footing and fire back up its home crowd, which would prove to be critical as HNU made a run later in the game.

 "I missed this so much last year. The energy in this place was electric," said Wright. "I love how many people are showing up. They're all locked in and all cheering for us. It gives us energy to bounce back."

Biola would lead by as many as 15 points inside of the final 10 minutes, but a 10-point run for HNU allowed them to wrangle back into things as the game became 60-55 with five minutes left.

Of course it was Wright who stiffarmed back that HNU run with an aggressive and-one play to break the scoring drought and push it back to an eight-point edge with what would turn out to be his final points of the game.

He passed the scoring baton back to his longtime partner Bagatourian, who canned the final five points of the game for BU, including a three-point dagger with just one possession's worth of time left. 

"Michael came through when we needed him," said Holmquist. "Down the stretch he made some really, really nice plays. He is a very good player. We've had him for five years and I sure will be sad when he goes."
 
Jesse Elrod would pull down the final defensive rebound as time expired and allowed the collective inside Chase Gymnasium to let out a big exhale. 

"All the guys that played tonight made a big difference," said Holmquist. "I am just glad to get this win and now have a week off before our next game. I look forward to giving the guys Monday off to focus on their schoolwork."

The win pushes Biola to 8-1 on the season and maintains the 2-0 conference mark. Holy Names drops to 2-6 (0-2 PacWest), but their effort in this one cannot be understated. They are certainly a better side than the record suggests.

Wright finished the game as the leading scorer for both sides with 25 points on 11-for-17 shooting. Bagatourian (13) and Rossow (10) were also in double-figures for BU. 

Bagatourian had his 13 come on 6-for-10 shooting in just 15 minutes on the floor, a number that ties his career-low from way back in December 2017.

Biola shot 47 percent from the floor, while limiting the opposition to a 39 percent mark. The big difference was in Biola's ability to stop the three in the second half. HNU hit six triples in the first and just two in the final stanza.

The Eagles were +10 on the boards (43-33) and only turned the ball over six times in another relatively clean game. Biola had 22 baskets set up by assists, which is the fifth-consecutive game of 20+ for BU. Rossow, of course, led in that category with eight dimes - a new season-high. He's averaging 4.8 assists-per-game this year.

Biola also racked up five blocks in this one, which has been a part of the game that's been improving as of late. BU has had between four and six stops in each of it's last five games.

Up next for Holmquist's squad is a Cornerstone Cup matchup at Azusa Pacific (4-4, 2-0 PacWest) next Saturday afternoon. The Cornerstone Cup is presented by West Coast Sand & Gravel.