The Eagles played against Azusa Pacific University at Chase Gymnasium on Feb. 3. The two teams traded leads several times throughout the intense game. The Eagles came up short in the final seconds as APU won by a score of 68-65.

APU JUMPS OUT TO FIRST HALF LEAD

APU made a layup in the beginning of the game. After this, junior guard Danielle Kennedy and senior guard Demoria White each made a three-point shot, bringing the score to 6-2 with the Eagles in the lead. APU responded with a 10-point run, putting a six-point lead between themselves and the Eagles. In the the last three minutes of the quarter, the Eagles went on a nine-point run and tied the game 12-12. Kennedy made a three-point shot with 34 seconds left, putting the Eagles in the lead by a score of 15-12.

In the second quarter, the teams exchanged leads a total of four times as the momentum swung back and forth. White made a three-pointer to give Biola a 25-22 lead with five minutes remaining in the quarter, and the shot carried extra meaning as it made her the ninth player in Eagles’ women’s basketball history to score 1,500 career points. APU went on a four-point run to break a 27-27 tie with under two minutes before halftime, capping it off with a steal and fastbreak layup. The Eagles cut the lead by one with a free throw from White but headed into the break down 31-28.

LATE COMEBACK FALLS SHORT

Kennedy nailed a game-tying three-pointer in the opening seconds of the third quarter. However, APU promptly responded with a nine-point run to grab hold of the lead. From then on, the Eagles kept pace but could not put a sizeable dent in their deficit, and the quarter ended with Biola down 51-41.

The Eagles began to cut into APU’s lead at the start of the fourth quarter. At 5:06, freshman forward Jazz Benn made a three-point shot which moved the Eagles ahead of APU to 56-55, and the lead went back and forth from there, With 14 seconds left, White made two free throw shots to move the score to 65-64. However, APU responded with a layup and the Eagles immediately turned the ball over, allowing APU to finish the game with 68-65 win.

White scored 15 points, and had eight rebounds and four assists. Benn also collected four steals and junior forward Sara Dougan blocked three shots.

“KEEP FIGHTING, KEEP COMPETING”

“I thought the keys to the game where to keep fighting, keep competing, on the defensive and the rebounding and playing with a lot of poise on the offensive end,” said head coach Alan Nakamura. “We showed a lot of fight, a lot of grit and an emphasis on poise of the offensive end.”

Kennedy was pleased with how the Eagles controlled the pace for the most part.

“Work hard focus on our fundamentals, up our tempo…play our own game. I think for the most part we did that,” Kennedy said. “There were some spurts where we should have stayed more poised.”

Sophomore guard Tatum Brimley enjoyed the unique environment of the rivalry game.

“Exciting, it’s always, it just makes me want to play more hard when there’s this many people.”

The loss moved the Eagles to 7-7 in the Pacwest conference and 10-10 overall. The Eagles next challenge will be at home game against Holy Names University on Feb. 5 at 5:30 p.m.