GOLDEN, Colo. --- Biola and Fresno Pacific's men's basketball teams have met nearly 100 times on the hardwood over the course of their nearly 60-year history. This Friday's matchup, though, has that little something extra as the two teams meet in the NCAA postseason for the very first time.

The Eagles and Sunbirds will come together at 5 p.m. PT at Lockridge Arena in Golden, Colo. in a first-round matchup at the NCAA Division II West Region Championship. It's the fourth time BU and FPU have met in the playoffs, and the first time since March 1998 when Biola handed FPU an 82-61 defeat in the first round of the Golden State Athletic Conference tournament.

While no spectators are allowed at Lockridge, the game will be live streamed for free at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/csm/ and live statistics are available at https://www.ncaa.com/game/5801138.

Biola is 3-0 all-time against FPU in the previous playoff meetings, which date back to 1986. The Eagles control the all-time series against Fresno Pacific with 65 wins and just 28 losses. BU is 7-3 in the last 10 meetings (dating back to January 2011). 

This is the first time Biola will see Fresno Pacific this season as the PacWest Conference SoCal pod champions (Biola) have to go all the way to Colorado to see the PacWest Conference NorCal pod champions (FPU).

The Sunbirds went undefeated in their pod this year with an 8-0 mark in games against Academy of Art (3-10) and Dominican (4-5). They went 1-1 in a non-conference series against Azusa Pacific (5-7), which was the only common opponent between these two teams in 2021. 

Biola went 3-1 in its four meetings against the Cougars, scoring 77 points-per-game while allowing 73 per-game from APU. While compiling their 1-1 mark against APU, Fresno Pacific scored 78 points-per-game while allowing 91 per-game from the Cougars.

The Eagles will certainly have the defensive advantage in this matchup, coming into this one with the second-best scoring margin in the PacWest (+5.6). Biola also allows five fewer points-per-game on average than this FPU side (76.9-71.8).

Biola's 9-2 effort in the Southern California pod allowed Dr. Dave Holmquist's side to enter this tournament as the automatic qualifier representing the conference. It certainly makes sense, since the Eagles had to play the toughest schedule in the league (.541 opp. Winning pct) and came away with the second-most conference wins of any team in the league (UH-Hilo - 10) and two wins over a top-15 opponent (Point Loma). 

Biola controlled its own destiny by claiming the season series over the Sea Lions with a 79-74 neutral-site victory over PLNU at Concordia Irvine on the final night of the regular season. That win tipped the scales in favor of BU over the conference-favorite PLNU and punched Biola's ticket to its first NCAA postseason.

Fresno Pacific had a more stressful journey to its first NCAA tournament berth. The Sunbirds cruised through the regular season but had to deal with some schedule prejudice holding them down in the regional rankings. 

Despite a 9-4 (8-0) record (8-1 vs. D2) heading into the final week, FPU showed up eighth in the regional rankings and knew just six teams were invited to the regional. So, FPU scheduled a pair of additional NCAA Division II games against Humboldt State (1-3) and handed the Jacks a pair of losses to increase their winning streak to seven games to end the regular season.

Those wins may have been just what the doctor ordered for the Sunbirds as they were selected over Hawaii Hilo (10-2, 10-2 PacWest) for the no. 6 spot, the final spot, in the NCAA West Regional Championships.

The two teams bring with them six all-conference selections to Golden, Colorado. In addition to the six players recognized earlier this week, Biola's head coach Dr. Dave Holmquist picked up PacWest Conference Coach of the Year honors. 

For Holmquist, it's his ninth conference/district coach of the year honor (first since 2015-16). It's a well-earned recognition for the steward of this Biola program, who took a team picked to finish fourth to a "conference title" and won the 1,000th game of his coaching career in the process. There's a bit of serendipity in that coach Holmquist's first NCAA tournament contest comes against the team he led in his very first head coaching opportunity (FPU - 1975-78)

Biola saw Alex Wright, Chris Rossow and Michael Bagatourian named to the All-PacWest team. The Sunbirds had honors bestowed upon Aamondae Coleman, Adrian Antunez and Nate Kendricks. 

This year marks the most successful season for the Sunbirds since 2012-13 when Chris Wright and PacWest Conference Newcomer of the Year John Taylor led FPU to a 21-9 overall record, 14-4 PacWest record and fourth-place finish at the NCCAA tournament.

For Biola, it's the most successful season since Dakari Archer and Terrell Funches led the 2015-16 team to a GSAC title, GSAC tournament title and 30-4 overall record before being eliminated by the eventual national champions in the NAIA Tournament. It was Holmquist's 20th trip to the NAIA tournament. The Eagles would go 26-6 the next season to make it back to NAIAs for one last time before transitioning to the NCAA Division II and beginning their road to this week's matchup.

See below for a statistical comparison of the two teams and some notable players to watch.
 

NCAA	PacWest	Stat	Category	Stat	PacWest	NCAA
59	3	78.6	Scoring	77.4	4	72
136	7	76.9	Defense	71.8	3	66
48	3	.473	FG PCT	.493	1	19
106	5	.349	3-PT FG PCT	.410	1	7
89	3	.728	FT PCT	.744	2	58
85	6	36.1	REBOUNDING	37	5	63
48	3	14.9	ASSISTS	16.2	1	24
183	9	5.1	STEALS	5.9	7	139
117	8	2.5	BLOCKS	3.4	2	45
197	9	15.8	TURNOVERS	11.7	4	37
122	4	7.7	3-PTM/GM	6.7	8	179
98	4	+0.3	REBOUND MARGIN	+5.1	1	21
84	5	+1.7	SCORING MARGIN	+5.6	2	46
143	5	.494	OPP WINNING PCT	.541	1	28

PLAYERS TO WATCH
Aamondae Coleman
FPU - #4 - Senior
Aamondae Coleman earned his second all-conference selection in 2020-21 after leading the league in scoring with 20.1 points-per-game. He was not only the leading scorer in terms of volume, but also managed to have the highest field goal percentage in the conference (.576). Coleman was named PacWest Conference NorCal Player of the Week four times during the year while leading his Sunbirds to a flawless record in NorCal play. Coleman is going to do nearly all of his damage from inside as only nine of his 118 made field goals this year came from beyond the arc. He is averaging 6.8 rebounds-per-game this season, of which FPU will need every bit of in this matchup as they face a Biola team that's No. 1 in the league in rebounding margin (+5.1) this year. Coleman started all 15 of FPU's contests this season, but his minutes are limited to just about 23 minutes-per-game, because he's been in foul trouble quite regularly (averaging nearly 4 fouls-per-game). Coleman managed three double-doubles this season and scored 20 or more nine times. Last year in two games against Biola, Coleman averaged 14 points and five rebounds. 

Adrian Antunez
FPU - #12 - Senior
Adrian Antunez earned his second all-conference honors of his four-year Fresno Pacific career in 2020-21. Antunez was all-league and won five PacWest Conference Freshman of the Week honors in 2017-18. He came up short that year for PacWest Conference Freshman of the Year as Biola's Isaiah Jones took home the honor. Antunez has started every game for FPU since arriving on campus for the Sunbirds (97 games). This year, he ranked fifth in the PacWest Conference in assists (52), while averaging 13.6 points-per-game and playing about 10 more minutes-per-game than Coleman. Antunez comes into the tournament on a high following one of his best performances of the season last time out against Humboldt State. He went 8-for-12 from the floor for 19 points to lead FPU to the six-point win. Antunez has been dead-eye shooting over the last four times out, making 25 of his last 34 shots (.735). In last season's two meetings between Biola and FPU, Antunez had a pair of 19-point performances while shooting over 50 percent in both games. 

Alex Wright
BU - #10 - Junior
Alex Wright is one of three Biola Eagles to land on the all-conference team this season. He was the most consistent player in the Eagles' starting five this year and easily one of the top-3 players in the league. He is 11th in NCAA Division II in defensive rebounds-per-game (7.50), seventh in minutes-per-game (six games with 39 or more mins) and Top-50 in field goals and rebounds. This year he's managed four double-doubles and three 20+ point games to lead Biola in both scoring (17.3) and rebounding (8.7). Wright is in his third season at Biola and earned all-league for the first time this season. Like Antunez was in 17-18, Wright was the favorite for Freshman of the Year in 2018-19 but did not come away with the award. It's neat to see how both players have come into their own and blossomed as their career's have progressed. In the two games against FPU last season Wright had a seven-point, 11-rebound effort and a seven-point, 13-rebound game.

Michael Bagatourian
BU - #0 - Senior
Michael Bagatourian is the first Biola Eagles men's basketball player to earn multiple All-PacWest honors after earning his second-straight nod this year. Bagatourian had his only single-digit scoring effort of the year in Biola's last contest, so he'll be looking to bounce back in this one. On the season he averaged just under 33 minutes-per-contest and piled on 15.8 points-per-game (a new career-best) and 5.4 rebounds-per-game. Bagatourian is the guy Biola will look to in order to right the ship should they get off to a slow start in this one. He is an explosive, momentum scorer with a deadly mid-range fadeaway. He had the single-game high for any Biola scorer this year when he went for 31 (10-for-21) in a game against Azusa Pacific. 

Chris Rossow
BU - #5 - Senior
Rossow is a top-5 passer in all of NCAA Division II. That prowess, plus his ability to take over a game late, is what allowed him to earn all-league honors for the first time this season. Rossow finished the regular season averaging 6.4 assists-per-game, which is the most by any Biola Men's Basketball player since the 1991-92 season when Mike Coffin is listed with nearly 10 per-game. Rossow is third on the team with 13.2 points-per-game, but has one of the most impressive comprehensive stat lines, including 4.8 rebounds-per-game, the nearly seven assists-per-game and 1+ steals-per-game. He had one double-double this season, using the rare combination of points (15) and assists (10) against Concordia Irvine. Rossow averaged 18 points-per-game against FPU last season.

The winner of this game has a date with No. 2 seed Colorado School of Mines (16-2) on Saturday, March 13 at 5 p.m. PT.