Biola’s men’s basketball team faced two Golden State Athletic Conference opponents this past week as their regular season came to a close. The Eagles first faced off against the Vanguard University Lions on Biola’s senior night. A large crowd came out to support the three graduating seniors — Mike Kurtz, Pierre Zook and Colin Bossio. Despite the support and an excellent first half, the Eagles ended up losing 66-54. The penultimate game of the regular season for the Eagles had them faced up against The Master’s College Mustangs, who came in with an identical GSAC record of 4-10. This game came down to the wire, but the Eagles fell short, losing 71-69.
Zook and sophomore guard Dakari Archer were the stars of the game against Vanguard, as they each ended the night with a game high of 21 points off of nearly identical shooting stats. Zook made nine of his 14 shots, including three three-pointers, while Archer made eight of his 13 shots, also hitting three three-pointers. Archer made the additional two points from the free throw line, whereas Zook never visited the charity stripe.
The difference in the game were the points in the paint, as Biola could not contend with the Vanguard bigs down low. They were outscored 40-13. With a close game going into halftime, Biola only lost by three points. Biola never led, but tied the score with 15:19 left on the clock in the second half. From there, Vanguard took over and slowly pulled away until they had the largest lead of the game, 14 points with 3:52 left. It proved too much for Biola to overcome and they walked away with the loss.
On Tuesday, the Eagles faced Master’s in what looked like the most winnable game left on their schedule. The first time these two teams met, Biola won handily by a score of 73-56. Conversely to the game against Vanguard, Master’s had a great first half, while the Eagles showed up in the second. Zook and Archer again had a big night, scoring 22 and 17 points respectively. However, the bigs got some production this game as Kurtz and freshman Steve Herve contributed 10 each. The two teams combined for 70 points in the paint and struggled from beyond the arc.
The difference of the game was Master’s six foot eight inch guard Russell Byrd and his free-throw shooting. He made 12 out of 13 free throw attempts, including six within the final minute that helped to keep them barely ahead of the Eagles’ offense that brought the gap to only one point multiple times in the second. Unfortunately for Biola, they were not able to get it done and ended up with the loss.
With only one game left in the regular season, the Eagles are starting to prep for postseason play, including thinking about what needs work for them to be successful.
“We need to work on sharing the ball,” said Kurtz. “Getting the open guys shots and defending.”
Biola now sits in seventh place in the GSAC rankings with a conference record of 4-11 and an overall record of 16-13. Their final game of the regular season is at Westmont, who sits in fourth place in GSAC and No. 20 in the NAIA. The game takes place Feb. 28 at 7:30 p.m. in Santa Barbara.
