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Scoreboard

Biola Men's Basketball past and present
George Rodriguez
78
Hawaii Hilo Hilo 10-8,6-5 PacWest
88
Winner Biola BIO 15-4,9-3 PacWest
Hawaii Hilo Hilo
10-8,6-5 PacWest
78
Final
88
Biola BIO
15-4,9-3 PacWest
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Hawaii Hilo Hilo 33 45 78
Biola BIO 41 47 88

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

1,017 Wins, Together.

Biola gets to celebrate its beloved head coach in front of a "sold out" crowd on Saturday.

LA MIRADA, Calif. — Saturday night in Chase Gymnasium was an opportunity to set aside all of life's little worries and for a few hours press pause, or, for some of the alumni in the house, maybe even press rewind.

There was an important basketball game going on in the building, a good one at that. But, for a good portion of the group in the room, the night was one that meant so much more. It was an opportunity to reflect, recollect and reconnect with the Biola Men's Basketball community. 

This night was dedicated not just to the current team, which defeated Hawaii Hilo 88-78 to move into sole possession of first place in the PacWest Conference, but it was dedicated to the entire history of the Biola Men's Basketball program. Nearly 100 alumni came back to pay homage to their coach, Dr. Dave Holmquist in an event dubbed '1,000 wins, together."

Biola's beloved, distinguished and legendary head coach won his 1,000th career game last February in an empty gym in Irvine. Tonight, in front of a COVID capacity crowd at the place he's called home since the mid-1970s, he took home win number 1,017 and got to cherish it with those who mean most to him - his former players. 

Men's Basketball alumni from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s and now all piled into Chase Gym to cheer on the current team, which was looking to earn win number 15 on the season and conference win number nine.

The game was never once in doubt as Biola established control in the early going and never let it get to be too much run and gun like Hawaii Hilo would've liked. 

Sure, the 88 points is the second-most this year in a conference win for BU, but that output became necessary mostly because the turnover bug bit late in the game after the win was already pretty well in hand. The Eagles had 20 giveaways, which is a conference season-high.

BU rode adrenaline early on to stake a 14-5 lead capped by a fastbreak layup from Alex Wright following a Rossow steal. The whole gym was going bananas at that point, making perhaps the second loudest moment of the night. 

The loudest came much later in the contest when the Red Sea got to witness a very rare transition dunk from Alex Wright to make it 86-76 with 15 ticks left to play.. It was perhaps the only time Holmquist would be alright with one of his players giving up the free layup.

After the hot start, things stagnated a bit for BU as Hilo brought the game back within two at 22-20. Thankfully, Biola got a media timeout just one possession later and had the chance to refocus, slow the game down and pushed the lead back out to eight at the half (41-33).

The second half became a bit pedestrian even as Biola saw its lead fluctuate between the eight-point mark and 18 points. Even an incredible individual effort from Hawaii Hilo's star, Aniwaniwa Tait-Jones wasn't enough to get the BU faithful to break a sweat.

Tait-Jones had 26 points, five rebounds and a pair of assists on a 10-for-15 shooting performance to lead all of Hilo's scorers. Biola spread it around a bit more with five players hitting double figures, led by 17 each from Alex Wright and Michael Bagatourian.

It was another phenomenal shooting performance for the Eagles, who recorded a season-best field goal percentage of .646. In fact, the shooting percentage is the best Biiola's seen since Feb. 22, 2020 against Holy Names when the Eagles scored 113 points and hit 67.2 percent of their shots.

Chris Rossow and Maximo Milovich each went 4-for-5 to help that effort. Milovich had his fourth double-digit scoring effort of the season with 11 points to go with a team-high eight rebounds. He and Wright each brought down eight boards as Biola held a 35-23 advantage in that category.

After the game, the celebration continued as event organizer Rich Cundall (class of 1982) emceed a presentation to coach Holmquist that included speeches/letters from himself, men's basketball alumnus and Biola board member Brad Cole (class of 1978), Golden State Warriors  coach Ron Adams, former assistant coach Scott Mossman and, of course, Dr. Holmquist himself.

His first-place Eagles improved to 15-4 (9-3 PacWest) with the win. Hawaii Hilo dipped to 10-8 (6-5 PacWest). Up next for Biola is another exciting home matchup as Biola hosts rivals Concordia Irvine (10-7, 7-4 PacWest) on Tuesday night (Feb. 1) at 7:30 p.m. It's the last contest in this recent five-game homestand.
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