Last week the women’s basketball team began their conference play with a flourish as they beat San Diego Christian College 69-62 in El Cajon, Calif.

San Diego was playing with a number of key players on the sidelines with injuries. However, the Eagles were shorthanded as well with leading rebounder and second leading scorer junior Summer Matthews sitting out with an injury.

The Eagles were led on this Thanksgiving eve game by an outstanding offensive performance by junior Megann Alberts. Alberts added yet another double-double as she led all scorers with 25 points. She also tallied 12 boards to go along with her scoring barrage.

Sophomore guard Chelsea De Luca added 19 points of her own to the mix, scoring 11 points in the second half alone.

Although the Eagles led most of the game, the Hawks were able to come back and tie it with less than five minutes remaining. With the offense hitting an impressive 49 percent of their shots on the night, the Eagles quickly re-secured the lead and nabbed the win.

“It was a great start to the season,” said Matthews. “It helped to get us focused for league and to keep in our minds what we are after this year which is to play as a team and win.”

Unfortunately, Thanksgiving break slowed the Eagles momentum slightly as they dropped their next game to Hope International on Tuesday night, 57-62. The women still put up a fight, but a late rally on the behalf of Hope led to a tough loss for the Eagles.

Alberts continued to impress tallying 22 points in the game. Matthews appeared to be back in top form after sitting out the San Diego Christian game with an injury, pulling a game-high 12 rebounds alongside her eight points.

The Eagles led by as much as eight points late in the game. However, Hope put on a scoring clinic at the finale and pulled off their fourth victory over Biola in their last six contests together.

Hope has been especially strong in the early games as they move to 9-1 on their young season and 2-0 in the GSAC.

The Eagles drop to 1-1 in conference play and 3-4 overall. Even so, their scoring has been fairly high all season long and the women are consistently improving on keeping their turnovers at a minimum.

“Our team has good chemistry on and off the court,” said Matthews after the loss. “We just have to work together as a unit to take that into the games with as much intensity as possible.”

The women now return for a four-game home stand, beginning this Thursday at 5:30 p.m. when they take on conference opponent Point Loma Nazarene University. The game will be the Eagles last conference game before Christmas break.