Men’s basketball looked to follow the BU women’s thrilling overtime victory while on the road at Concordia University Saturday night. After a brief delay to the game’s start time due to the women’s contest, the Eagles started strong but eventually fell to CUI, 84-78.
A STRONG START
Biola quickly got on the board with points from freshman guard Alex Wright and senior forward Alexander Talma. Talma went on to lead the Eagles in the first half with five rebounds and 10 points. Right with him was sophomore guard Michael Bagatourian, posting 11 points for the Eagles. The play of these two kept the Eagles close with Concordia throughout the first half. They threatened go-ahead shots at times, keeping just within reach of Concordia. At halftime, Biola was trailing 41-35 with a lot of game left to play.
BATTLE OF THE EAGLES
Biola got fouled early on in the second half, giving the opportunity for some free points. However, a strong offensive effort from CUI dropped Biola behind by 10 with 15:00 left on the clock. Whenever it seemed like Concordia was going to widen their lead, though, the Eagles responded.
Senior forward Levi Auble had an important assist to Bagatourian, who brought Biola back to a 3-point game at 51-54. It was a close contest through the next minutes of play, and with 9:16 left in the game, Auble swiftly sunk a 3-pointer to tie it up for Eagles at 60-60.
BIOLA FALLS BEHIND
Unfortunately for Biola, they could never quite get ahead on the scoreboard. Concordia continued to score, widening their lead to 10 points at one point in the second half. They were led by redshirt senior Brian Chambers, who produced 18 of Concordia’s points. Chambers was 12-12 on free throws for the night. Still, Biola’s Michael Bagatourian was the best scorer on the night for both teams with 23 field goals.
Despite Alex Wright’s back-to-back three point shots, with 30 seconds left to play, the Eagles came up short. In a fierce battle till the end, Biola dropped the PacWest game 84-78. Concordia now has stretched their winning streak to 7 games, and sit 3-0 in conference.
With this rivalry loss, Biola is now 2-2 in the PacWest. The men will look to bounce back strong at Chase Gymnasium as they take on Cornerstone Cup rival Azusa Pacific University next Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
