Wright, Bagatourian and Rossow named All-PacWest

Biola's coach Dave Holmquist, front right, was selected as the PacWest Conference Coach of the Year, and players, from left, Chris Rossow, Michael Bagatourian and Alex Wright were selected to the PacWest Men's Basketball All-Conference Team. (Photo by Keith Durflinger)

LA MIRADA – After a successful year in the NCAA DII men’s basketball for Biola University, postseason awards have been handed out and the Eagles are well represented.

Longtime coach, Dave Holmquist, was honored as the PacWest Coach of the Year, as the Eagles finished atop the conference and he won the 1,000th game of his career.

He joins an elite group of only four other men’s college coaches to achieve that milestone of 1,000 wins.

Holmquist, who is in his 41st year at Biola and 45th overall, will return next year and add to his legacy.

Three members of the team were also honored as All-PacWest players from the 11-member conference.

Two seniors, Michael Bagatourian (9th in scoring, 15.4 PPG) and Chris Rossow (17th, 13.0) and junior Alex Wright (7th, 16.2, 4th in RB, 8.5) rounded out the 21 players named to the team.

Wright led the way with two PacWest Player of the Week honors (Feb.8 and 15) and Rossow received it on March 8.

Wright, Bagatourian and Rossow were the top three in scoring for the Eagles.

Wright, a 6-5 guard, led his team to a two-game sweep over Concordia for his first weekly award with 15 points and seven rebounds. The second day he scored a season-high 28 points and grabbed 13 rebounds.

He came right back to earn the back-to-back award as he led the Eagles to another two-game sweep over Azusa Pacific. He had 15 points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals in the first win of the week. That was followed up with 22 points (10 RBs, 4 Assts., 9-15 FGM) the following day.

Bagatourian, a 6-7 forward who earned his second All-PacWest award, scored 44 points in the win over APU.

Rossow, a 5-9 guard, earned the award in the last week of the season with a 24-point performance on 9 of 17 shooting and was perfect at the free throw line (5-5).

Both Bagatourian and Rossow will return next year, as per the NCAA senior Covid return rule, along with Wright.