Coming off of an exciting double-overtime victory against Concordia University, Biola’s men’s basketball team suffered a disappointing 89-77 loss against the Arizona Christian University Firestorm. The loss puts the Eagles at 14-9 overall and 4-3 in Golden State Athletic Conference play.

Arizona Christian was the first to get on the board within the first minute with layup from center Mateus Oliveira. Freshman guard Dakari Archer scored the Eagles’ first points with a three four minutes into the game.

Biola and Arizona Christian had stayed within score throughout the entire first half. Neither team was able to get a lead larger than three points until the last minute as the Firestorm drained two threes to take a 40-35 lead into the half.

Eleven seconds into the second half, senior forward Andre Murillo put up a jumper to shorten the Firestorm’s lead. Despite the quick start Biola was not able to obtain a lead against the Firestorm the Eagles found themselves trailing by 12 points with 10 minutes left in the game. 

The Eagles could not recover from the lead that the Firestorm gained and lost 89-77.

Murillo was the leading scorer for Biola, contributing 23 of Biola’s points. Murillo and junior forward Mike Kurtz led the team in rebounds with a total of eight each.

The men are currently second in GSAC standings and are hoping to knock off the Vanguard Lion’s undefeated standing in GSAC on Saturday. The Eagles will play the Lions on Feb. 8th at home at 7:30 p.m.