LA MIRADA, Calif. — Biola Men's Basketball won 20 games and placed third in the PacWest Conference in another very strong regular season. All year long the Eagles' effort was paced by the "big three" of Michael Bagatourian, Chris Rossow and Alex Wright. 

Those three were each honored by the PacWest Conference on Tuesday when the league announced its annual All-PacWest honors.

Rossow led the way by earning selection to the All-PacWest first team, an honor bestowed upon the top six players in the league. Bagatourian and Wright each found a spot on the All-PacWest second team. 

The PacWest honors three groups of six players and also issues annual awards for Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, Defender of the Year, Newcomer of the Year and Freshman of the Year.

Rossow earned All-PacWest last season when the awards were split between SoCal, NorCal and Hawaii pods. It's his second career conference honor. He was not all-conference during the regular season in 2019-20, but did earn all-tournament honors at the conference tournament.

Bagatourian was All-PacWest second team two seasons back and also landed on the SoCal team one season ago. Wright earned his second PacWest Conference honor with the second team selection. He was also featured on the SoCal pod team in 2020-21.

Rossow led the PacWest in assists-per-game (4.9), field goals made (176) and field goal percentage (.509) during the regular season. His 18.3 points-per-game this year is a new season-best during his three years at Biola and is fourth-best in the conference.

Bagatourian averaged 14.7 points-per-game and 6.0 rebounds-per-game to land on the all-conference team. He had double figures in all but six games this season, including a season-best 36 points against Fresno Pacific in December. He had 89 assists to finish second to Rossow in assists-per-game this year (3.4).

Wright continued to do a little bit of everything for Biola in his penultimate season as an Eagle and was once again rewarded for his efforts with this conference award. His rebounding carried Biola on many nights as he led the team in that category with 7.1 boards-per-game. He's third among all PacWest players in rebounds.

The versatile grad student piled on 15.4 points-per-game and once again led the team in minutes-per-game at 36.9. Wright was top-20 in the nation in that category this year.

Both Wright and Rossow eclipsed 1,000 points as Eagles this season. Bagatourian leapt past 1,500 career points with another year that's certain to eclipse 400 points.

PREVIEW: Biola vs. Concordia University Irvine - PacWest Conference Tournament First Round
Date: March 2, 2022
Time: 12:30 p.m. Tip-Off
Location: Fresno, California (FPU Special Event Center - Masks are Required)
Tickets (MUST be bought online in advance): https://thepacwest.com/sports/2020/12/7/GEN_1207205334.aspx 
Live Stream: https://team1sports.com/fpusunbirds/
Live Stats: https://www.fpuathletics.com/sidearmstats/mbball/summary
Tournament Central Website

Biola Men's Basketball (No. 3 seed) faces Concordia University Irvine (No. 6 seed) on Wednesday in Fresno to open play at the 2022 PacWest Conference Men's Basketball Championship.

Biola swept the season series between the two teams with an 83-76 home victory on Feb. 1 and a 90-86 road win on Feb. 16. It should be a competitive matchup between a pair of teams which are very familiar with one another.

Biola has won the last eight meetings between these two teams, with the last CUI victory coming January 16, 2020. The Eagles (of La Mirada) control the all-time series with 38 wins and just 21 losses. 

This is the second time these two teams have matched up in the PacWest Conference tournament. Biola's drawn CUI as its first-round matchup in both of its years eligible for the PacWest Conference Tournament (2020, 2022).

Dr. Dave Holmquist's Biola side defeated CUI 86-77 in the 2020 tournament matchup. Chris Rossow scored 31 points on 11-for-18 shooting as Biola outscored CUI 50-37 in the second-half to secure the win.

In 2020 Concordia University Irvine was the No. 4 seed and Biola the No. 5 seed. Biola went on to defeat APU in the semifinals and then lost in OT to Point Loma in the championship game that year.

Rossow will be the driving force in this tournament matchup. The All-PacWest first team selection averaged 28.5 points-per-game in the two regular season matchups with CUI in 2022. Biola shot 60 percent and 54 percent and held a significant rebounding advantage in each regular season battle with Concordia.

Avoiding a slow start will be critical as Biola has to overcome playing in a gym that typically gives the team trouble (FPU Special Events Center). 

Biola trailed by 10 at the break and shot just 17 percent in the first half at Fresno Pacific earlier this year. The Eagles managed to escape that game with a one-point win, but Biola's not had a single game with better than 50 percent on field goals at the FPU Special Event Center since entering the PacWest in 2017.

See below for a general statistical comparison between Biola and CUI for 2022.

 

CUI	Category	Biola
74.1	Scoring	78.5
74.8	Defense	71.4
.445	FG PCT	.484
.329	3-PT FG PCT	.346
.722	FT PCT	.706
29.5	REBOUND	39.2
11.4	ASSISTS	16.6
5.8	STEALS	5.3
3.3	BLOCKS	2.6
11.8	TURNOVERS	12.3
9.6	3-PTM/GM	6.6
-7.0	REBOUND MARGIN	+7.4
-0.7	SCORING MARGIN	+7.1
.515	OPP WIN PCT	.506