GOLDEN, Colo. --- After authoring a conference title, 1,000th win and a postseason run that breathed life into an empty Biola campus, Biola Men's Basketball closes the book on this unique 2021 season after falling in the round of 32 to No. 6 Colorado School of Mines (17-2).

The Eagles just ran out of gas against the Orediggers, dealing with the mile-high air for the first time and playing back-to-back nights after a barn-burner on Friday. The hosting Orediggers defended their home court in the regional semifinal, setting Dr. Dave Holmquist's side down by a final score of 83-52.

"It was a great year for us. All of the close games that we were in we won. We were in the strongest pod in the conference and the top four rated teams in the preseason poll were in the conference. For us to win the pod was an achievement," said Holmquist. "It was a real nice team to work with. With the way things worked out, despite the way that everything happened with COVID, it was a real enjoyable year."

For the Eagles, the 52-point effort is the lowest tally in a game this season. That's what can happen when you go up against the no. 3 defense in the nation who comes into the tournament on a full week of rest.

Mines defended well and shot the ball even better, using 33 made field goals in 57 attempts (.579) to earn the big victory and advance to the round of 16 against the winner of the other semifinal between Colorado Mesa and Northwest Nazarene.

"They are a very good team. We played hard and they are just a better team," said Holmquist. "They got away from us. They are one of the best teams in the country. We inspire to get to that level."
 

Biola led for a few minutes early in the first half, but Colorado School of Mines went on a 8-0 run to open up a 14-7 lead by the 11:20 mark and never looked back after that. The Orediggers led 45-26 at halftime and outscored BU by another 12 in the second frame in order to get the win.

Michael Bagatourian was able to get it going a bit in this game after a quiet night in last night's win. He was 6-for-14 and led the Eagles with 16 points. Chris Rossow had 11 points and four assists and freshman phenom Maximo Milovich came close to a second-straight double-double with 10 points and a team-high six rebounds.

""I'm just so proud of everyone on this team. There's so much that we had to go through with this COVID stuff," said senior Michael Bagatourian. "We fought every single day during the season. I think we exceeded a lot of people's expectations. We got here (Regionals), but we have a lot of work to do."

The matchup to watch coming into this one was between RMAC Player of the Year Brendan Sullivan and All-PacWest recipient Alex Wright. 

Wright had 20 points and 12 rebounds last night, but was held off the board by the stingy defense of Sullivan tonight. He was 0-for-9 shooting. It was just the fourth time in his three-year Biola career he had a game with no made field goals. 

It was unfortunate timing for it, but the tough outing takes nothing away from all Wright did to get Biola to this point with an incredible individual season leading BU to its first NCAA Tournament berth. With the 14-game season now officially in the books, Wright finishes the year as Biola's leading scorer (16.2) and leading rebounder (8.5), while having a positive assist-to-turnover ratio and grabbing the most steals on the team (19).

"They're one of the best teams I've played since I've been in college," said Bagatourian. "They're really good, really solid. They don't make any mistakes on offense or defense."

Biola finishes the season 10-4 overall and will bring the whole team back for one more shot at this thing in 2021-22.