Men’s basketball became the latest Biola Athletics squad to start NCAA Division II play, starting their season at Cal State San Marcos on Nov. 10. If their first game showed any omen for the rest of the season, the Eagles will face a rough adjustment process going forward. The CSUSM Cougars dominated from wire to wire, defeating Biola by a score of 84-57.
SENIOR GUARDS SOLID IN TOUGH FIRST HALF
The Eagles fell behind early in the first half, with the Cougars opening up a 16-8 lead by imposing their play style on Biola. CSUSM shot the lights out from beyond the arc, including two three-pointers during their opening run, going 5-10 from deep in the first half. When they opted against the deep ball, the Cougars sliced through Biola’s frontcourt for layups in the paint, playing efficient basketball that the Eagles had no answer for.
The veteran guard duo of senior Blake Shannon, Jr. and junior Trevor Treinen proved a silver lining for the Eagles in the first half, scoring 20 total points on 9-13 combined shooting from the field to keep the game from getting out of hand by halftime, when Biola headed into the locker room only down nine.
EAGLES FALL APART LATE
However, the final 20 minutes turned the game into an absolute beatdown. Shannon did not score in the second half, as he was limited to eight minutes due to injury concerns that have also kept him out of practice recently. Meanwhile, none of his teammates notched more than senior center Alex Talma’s five points.
On the other end, San Marcos opened up an 18-point lead within the first nine minutes of the half, again running the majority of their offense through three-pointers and layups. By the time the final buzzer sounded, CSUSM had scored 16 of the game’s final 18 points. The Eagles shot only 25 percent from the field and committed eight turnovers in the second half.
Treinen led all Eagles scorers with 13 points on 5-11 shooting. Shannon and freshman forward Michael Bagatourian, who impressed in his collegiate debut, each finished with 11. Junior forward Levi Auble recorded seven rebounds while Talma had six.
The Eagles will stay in San Marcos, Calif. to take on Chico State, the seventh-ranked team in the nation, in a neutral site contest on Nov. 11.
