The men’s and women’s basketball teams rattled off a successful homestand, putting together a 3-1 record over the seven-day stretch.
The men had impressive wins against San Diego Christian and Hope International University. Saturday, the men defeated the Hawks of San Diego by a score of 64-55. Sophomore guard Marlon King continued his solid play, scoring 23 points and grabbing five rebounds in the effort. King helped the Eagles overcome a nine-point deficit by scoring 17 of his 23 in the second half.
The duo of senior forward Danny Jones and sophomore forward Rocky Hampton was rock-solid once again. Both recorded double-doubles and helped outscore San Diego 36-18.
The Eagles’ defense was strong, holding off the Hawks and allowing conference scoring leader, Bayo Arigbon, only 15 points.
According to King, Biola’s stifling defense is their ability to act as a cohesive unit.
“You’re not just guarding one man out there,” said King. “You have to always be helping the next man out.” If a comeback was necessary on Saturday, Jones decided that one would not be necessary on Tuesday.
Against Hope International, Biola almost tripled the Royals in scoring, defeating them 85-29. That night, Jones finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds in just 22 minutes of play.
Freshman Andrew Schroeder put together his finest game of the season, scoring 18 points and pulling down 10 rebounds.
The 56-point scoring margin was the highest of the season for the Eagles. The men are now 13-9 overall and 5-7 in GSAC play.
On the women’s side, the Lady Eagles were 1-1 over the home stretch. On Saturday, San Diego Christian jumped out to a big lead in the first half, thanks to eight three-pointers, and eventually held on to defeat Biola 74-63.
The Eagles got to within three points in the second half, but San Diego’s Dorchella James widened that gap, scoring 26 points while dishing out eight assists.
Junior Forward Megann Alberts scored 18 points and picked up 14 rebounds in the contest, but it was not quite enough to pull the Lady Eagles out of their slide.
“We are going to focus on defense,” said Alberts. “We need to make sure we have better gap control, and our help defense needs to be a couple steps faster than it has been.”
However, the Eagles decided to rely on their offense on Tuesday when they defeated NAIA scoring leader Jasmine Nault and Hope International by the score of 96-85. The women had four players score in the double digits en route to the highest point total Chase Gymnasium has seen since the 1998-1999 season.
The victory ended the ladies’ four-game slide.
Alberts put up big numbers on the night, scoring 26 points, pulling down 14 rebounds and dishing out seven assists. Fellow senior forward Summer Matthews was not far behind with 22 points and nine rebounds. Also in double figures for Biola was freshman forward Jenna French with 20 points and senior guard Mandi England with 10 points.
Hope’s Nault had 32 points in an effort to keep up with Biola, adding to her 25.0 point-per-game total on the season.
With the win, the Lady Eagles improve to 6-15 overall, with a 3-9 conference record.
Both the men’s and women’s teams now hit the road, traveling to Point Loma this Saturday and the Masters College the following Tuesday. The next home contest will be Feb. 16 at 7:30 p.m. against California Baptist.
