Box Score

Point Loma PL 8-2,7-2 PacWest

Biola BIO 9-3,9-2 PacWest

Point Loma PL

8-2,7-2 PacWest

Final

Mar. 06, 2021

Biola BIO

9-3,9-2 PacWest

Score By Periods
Team	1	2	F
Point Loma PL	29	45	74
Biola BIO	39	40	79

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | March 06, 2021

Eagles Clinch PacWest Pod Championship

Biola takes two of three from PLNU and is the 2021 PacWest SoCal CHAMP!

Next Game:

vs. Fresno Pacific (Game 1)

3/12/2021 | 5 p.m. PT

Next Game

Full Schedule

Mar. 12 (Fri) / 5 p.m. PT

vs. Fresno Pacific (Game 1)

History

Recap
Roster

IRVINE, Calif. --- For the second Saturday in a row Biola Men's Basketball had something big to celebrate on the home floor of Concordia University Irvine. The Eagles clipped Point Loma by a final score of 79-74 in the regular season finale to clinch the PacWest Conference Southern California Pod Championship.

Biola led almost wire-to-wire in this one, but it was a game when you never could quite let out your breath comfortably. Point Loma scored the first bucket of the game and held onto that lead for one minute, six seconds and then never led again.

The Eagles' first substantial lead of the contest came courtesy a run between 15:03 through 13:59 where BU scored seven-straight to take a 16-9 lead. The Eagles led by as many as 10 and as few as two over the rest of the first half, which was indicative of exactly how the rest of the contest would go.

Biola took the 10-point lead into halftime, leading 39-29. Biola shot 48 percent while holding the Sea Lions to just 10-for-34 (.294). The three-point line is where most of the struggles were found for PLNU, at least early on in this one. They fired up 18 shots from behind the arc and only saw two go in during the first 20 minutes (.111).

The Eagles took 10 fewer attempts from the three-point line in the first half, depending instead on grinding it out for points in the paint and at the free-throw line. This game was a bit of a foul-fest. Biola went 12-for-12 from the line in the first half in a game where there were 43 total fouls and 44 total free throws.

Cold shooting to start the second-half allowed Point Loma to work their way back into it and make Biola sweat down the stretch. One of the most nerve-wracking moments came right around 13 minutes after a big momentum shift fell in favor of the Sea Lions. PLNU went on an 11-2 run to turn a 48-36 Biola lead into just a 50-47 advantage. Biola was just 1-for-5 from the field during that stretch.

Biola was able to shake off the cold stretch and answer back with a 7-2 run of its own to extend the lead back out to double-digits. The Eagles' lead would fluctuate back down to just three on two separate occasions before the final buzzer before BU ultimately wrapped up the five-point win.

A three-shot foul on Brock Mackenzie with less than one minute to play allowed the Sea Lions to cut it down to one possession and force Biola to take care of its own business. That's exactly what the Eagles did.

Chris Rossow, who was easily the player of the game for BU, drove himself all the way to the bucket to make it a five-point lead with 14 ticks left on the clock.

Mackenzie, who hit a buzzer-beater to clinch the PLNU overtime win over Biola in the PacWest Tournament Championship, had a look on their final possession, but it bounced out into the hands of Maximo Milovich to lock up the win for BU.

Rossow ended the night with 24 points to lead Biola's scorers. He was 9-for-17 from the field, 5-for-5 from the line and added a handful of assists to lead Biola to one of its biggest wins in the NCAA Division II era.

Biola ended up shooting 49 percent overall and made 16-for-18 from the charity stripe to march to victory. The Eagles made seven of their last eight attempts from the field to ensure they kept PLNU at arm's length.

Alex Wright had another fantastic night as he went head-to-head with his competition for PacWest Conference Player of the Year, Kaden Anderson. He had 17 points, eight rebounds and eight assists while shooting 60 percent.

Jesse Elrod was also in double-digits, ending with 12 points on an economical 4-for-6 effort.

Anderson led all scorers with 25 points. He had a double-double with 11 rebounds but shot just 6-for-18. Both teams held onto the ball pretty well throughout, ending with nine turnovers on Biola's side and seven for PLNU.

The win helps Biola finish the year 9-3 overall and 9-2 in PacWest Conference Southern California Pod play. Biola awaits its postseason fate as the PacWest Conference ADs determine which team gets the automatic qualifying bid for the league and the region selects additional at-large bids to next week's NCAA Division II West Regional at Colorado School of Mines.

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