Members of the 2013-2014 basketball team pose with the Biola Eagle amidst the confetti that blew thorugh Chase Gymnasium to conclude Midnight Madness. | Olivia Blinn/THE CHIMES

Confetti engulfed the gym at 12:09 a.m. on Nov. 11 as students rushed from the stands to dance and cheer along with athletes from Biola’s athletic teams, including men and women’s basketball, swim and dive, soccer, track and field, cross country and women’s volleyball. Midnight Madness, Biola’s annual pep rally, saturated the gym with school spirit for an hour as students learned cheers, competed for dorm points and watched performances from both Xopoc Dance Crew and the new Biola Dance Crew.

“I love how we all went in the middle and the athletes didn’t even know what to expect at the end until all the crowd just came down bomb rushing us,” said senior art major Adijat Adams, a forward and center for the women’s basketball team.

RECLAIMED TITLE

The women’s basketball team took back the three-point shooting contest trophy from the men, winning by one point. While the women’s team had a large lead in the middle of the competition, the men caught up in at the end to make a close finish with a score of 24 to 23.

The women’s team looks forward to seeing the trophy grace their locker room after it’s absence last year. Winning will inspire them to future victories in the upcoming season, Adams said.

“It’s just awesome to just have that trophy back in our locker room knowing that we can take it all the way, we beat the guy’s basketball team so it means a lot to us,” Adams said.

FUN AND GAMES

The Biola Dance Crew, with the help of Xopoc, taught students the cheers to use during this season’s basketball games. The stands swayed as students learned a spirit dance to Beyonce’s “Single Ladies,” replacing the words “all the single ladies” with “all the red sea.”

The members of BDC then encouraged the audience to yell “Hoop, there it is” when a player makes a free-throw or three-point shot. In a brief tribute to Lil Jon and the East Side Boyz, the dance crew instructed Biolans to shout “To the window, to the wall, to the wall – I saw you dunk that ball” if a player dunks the ball during the game. The crowd practiced both cheers during the free-throw shootout and the dunk competition.

Crowd-favorite sophomore sociology major Jacari Miller won the men’s basketball team’s dunk competition after the stands exploded in cheers for his routine. However, Superman onesie pajama-clad Caelan Tiongson stole the show during the dunk-off, despite his three failures to put the ball in the basket.

Though the team players won bragging rights in their competitions, two Sigma residents took home two passes to the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park as a reward for their victory in the dorm “Minute to Win It” style game. After successfully making a tennis ball into a plastic bucket held by their partner 17 times, the Sigma residents also earned 500 dorm points.

STUDENTS PUMPED

Students poured into the gym and packed into the stands as the doors opened at 11:10 p.m. on Nov. 10. The crowd enthusiastically danced, ready to show their school spirit, as pop music blared from the speakers. Most students wore school colors, while others were more creative.

Wearing only black tights, American flag boxers and a cape made from the California Republic Flag, sophomore communications major Trevor Burket stood out among a group of Biola boys covered in red body paint.

“I feel like every Biola event I like to have a shock value, have something that gets the people’s attention,” Burket said.

Burket, who was there to show school spirit, loved the whole event, he said. Athletes enjoyed the event as well, as some hoped that Midnight Madness would garner more spectators for the games and meets.

“It lets everyone know we have athletic teams and sometimes people aren’t aware of that,” said member of the swimming and diving team Brandon Hughes, a sophomore business major.