The women’s basketball team closed their regular season at home in a dramatic fashion on Feb. 21. Biola achieved a victory over the No. 8 Vanguard University, a team they had not beaten in four years. The team followed with a loss to The Master’s College on Feb. 24.

Biola held the lead from tip-off. Senior forward Elizabeth Munger drew first blood with an early jump shot in her last home game. Freshman guard DeMoria White scored 16 of the Eagle’s first half points. Munger also contributed with eight points and four rebounds. Biola entered the half leading 37-32.

“It was just a lot of internal motivation,” said senior forward Chelsea Hill. “We’ve been working really hard these last couple of days and we came off with a lot of fire from the loss in overtime against Concordia. We just had the mindset that if we can play against Concordia like we did, we can beat Vanguard. We can beat anyone in this conference.”

The Eagles carried the momentum into the second half, only allowing the Lions to tie the game once. Sophomore guard Khadidja Diakita scored an efficient 13 second-half points on six shots. Both teams scored 44 points in the second half, but Biola’s first-half lead earned the 81-76 upset for the Eagles.

“Honestly, it wasn’t at one point [that we secured the game],” said Munger. “It was all throughout the game. We never let up, and kept fighting and kept sticking to our gameplan.”

Biola maintained an 18 percent better shooting percentage than the Lions throughout the game and shot 20 percent better than when they played Vanguard earlier this season. Diakite scored a team high 19 points and forced two steals. Munger finished her last home game with 14 points and eight rebounds.

No player on the Eagle’s roster had participated in a victory over Vanguard. The last time Biola beat the Eagles was Feb. 5, 2011. Since then, the Lions have established an eight game winning streak against Biola.

“This is probably one of the biggest wins of my life,” said Hill.  

The Eagles failed to carry the momentum of their victory to Master’s College, finishing with a final score of 73-42. The Mustangs held the lead for the entire game, due in part to Biola’s 24 percent shooting from the field. Junior guard Annie Park led the team with nine points and three rebounds.

Biola’s last regular season game is against the No. 15 Westmont College on Feb. 28. The Warriors currently hold a season record of 23-5 and 10-5 in conference. Biola lost to the Warriors 49-67 earlier this season.  

“Win,” said Hill. “We need to win these two, get a high playoff seed and just keep working hard and go after it, get all the way to the top of the tournament so we can go to Nationals.”