The men’s basketball team has wowed their spectators with three impressive victories to kick off the season.
24 Points or More
Other than their most recent victory against Benedictine Mesa University, the Eagles beat their opponents by 24 points or more. Senior guard Terrell Funches and junior guard Dakari Archer lead the Eagles in points made and they are huge contributors to Biola’s undefeated start.
The season opener at Benedictine University ended in an 84-60 Eagles victory. In their next match against Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the Eagles topped their opponent by 33 points, winning 95-62. They played Benedictine again in their third game and once again came out on top. Their 66-52 victory against Benedictine was their closest game yet, beating the Redhawks by 14 points.
An Impressive Start
Their 3-0 record has jumped them ahead to first place overall in their Golden State Athletic Conference division. Although this is an impressive start to the season, Biola has yet to start conference play and face more competition, including the reigning 2015 GSAC champions Hope International University.
Funches wasted no time in showing off his athletic capability in the first three games of the season, playing 104 minutes and leading the team with 56 overall points scored. With 24 points in the first game, 19 in the second and 13 in the third, Funches has averaged 18.6 points per game.
Confidence
In the season opener, Archer made nearly half of the Eagles points during the 36 minutes he played. By the end of the game, Archer scored 32 out of the 84 points the Eagles scored. Although he did not shoot as well in the next two games, Archer has the second highest number of points made on the team with 44.
“It got us really confident about the season,” said Steve Herve, sophomore forward. “After winning those two games and the game tonight it has made us confident about the season, we just have to keep playing hard and I think we will do good.”
Not only has their impressive start to the season shot them up in the rankings, it has also given the Eagles a high level of confidence going further into the season. However, the team knows if they get too confident it could cost them drastically as the season continues.
Playing and Working Hard
“We needed those games to get us confident, but just need to keep playing hard and working hard in practice,” Herve said. “We just need to be confident and play hard and I think we will be very good.”
The Eagles prepare for their fourth game of the season at Life Pacific College on Nov. 6 at 7:30 p.m.
