LA MIRADA, Calif. — They don't happen every day inside Chase Gymnasium, so when they do you know they will be memorable. That being slam dunks, and Erik Howlin's game-icing dunk on Wednesday night was no different.

The third-year Eagle was left all alone under the hoop as his teammate Julien Franklin scooped up an offensive rebound and hit him with a quick feed inside and with just over three seconds left in the game Howlin slammed in home. 

The dunk gave Howlin 20 points for the night and Franklin his third rebound and third assist, but more importantly it pushed the Eagles team past 80 points and secured an 81-75 win over Concordia University Irvine to begin PacWest play perfect.

The Eagles have now won 13 of their last 14 meetings against the longtime rival Golden Eagles. Biola is now 6-2 all-time in PacWest Conference openers. The win tonight avenges a loss last year to CUI, who took a 77-74 win from BU inside of Chase Gym.

Concordia took a 1-0 lead on a Charlie Dalton made free throw, but would never lead again as Biola worked from out in front for almost the entire game. The Golden Eagles forced several tie scores in the second half, pressing the issue late, but a few long scoring runs from Biola proved beneficial just enough to eek out a win.

The critical run for Biola was a 16-4 scoring streak late in the second half between 10:29 - 5:05. This built a 12-point lead for Biola, which would sustain coach Holmquist's team until the Howlin dunk secured the win.

During that stretch, Biola was 7-for-10 from the floor while its opponents were just 2-for-9. Casey Cappo (6) and Howlin (5) scored most of the Eagles' 16 points in the run to pace the way.

Howlin (20), Cappo (16) and Davian Brown (17) were the Eagles to hit double-figure scoring on this night. Howlin was particularly effective, going 8-for-12 from the floor and nabbing eight rebounds.

Concordia was holding its opponents to fewer than 68 points per game this season, before Biola's great dribbling offense opened it up for 80+ in this one. It was a clean game for Biola, as the Eagles had just nine turnovers for the third-consecutive outing. Notably, Concordia only coughed the ball up five times on their own in a battle of quality sides.

Howlin was brimming with confidence following the Eagles' win, mentioning in the postgame interview that he thought this was "their year".

The win pushes Biola's overall record to 7-1 and launches the team well into its conference schedule. The next three times out will all be road matches, with the next test being at Fresno Pacific in just three days.