Men’s basketball played their first away game of the spring semester in Hawaii against the Hawaii-Hilo University Vulcans. The Eagles’ official season started last year in November and played their first PacWest game on Dec. 2, 2021. 

Biola had their first game of the year on Jan. 6 against Hawaii Pacific University and started a win streak.The Eagles had three games in Hawaii to start the year off and added two wins to their conference standing, but unfortunately fell against the Vulcans, 97-89.

ON THE DEFENSE

The Eagles hustled on the court with consistent defense, gaining 28 rebounds and scored 48 points in the paint—showing an aggressive offense with 20 points over the Vulcans. Redshirt senior guard Chris Rossow led the flock by scoring a total of 27 points, five rebounds and two steals. Redshirt junior guard Alex Wright followed with 22 points and eight rebounds. Redshirt senior forward Michael Bagatourian contributed 17 points to the board and gained four rebounds.

ALL TIED UP

The Vulcans gained an early lead 8-0 in the first half, leaving the Eagles scrambling to score. Rossow changed that when he scored the first two points of the game for Biola. The score was back and forth between the two teams, and the Eagles caught up to tie the game at 19 points. However, the Vulcans gained the lead and Biola ended the first half in an eight-point deficit. 

The Vulcans continued the lead into the second half. With 12 minutes left on the clock the Eagles were down by 17 points. The Vulcans continued to dominate the court and show no mercy. The Eagles shifted and lowered the point gap down to four points with 38 seconds on the clock. However, The Eagles were unable to muster up a win and lost, 97-89.

Men’s basketball (11-3 overall, 5-2 conference), will head down south to San Diego to face off against Point Loma Nazarene University on Jan. 15 at 4:00 p.m. Footage and stats from the game are located on the Biola Athletics website.