Eagles fall to Westcliff, 61-54, in non-conference game
Biola’s Hope Weber (33) battles Westcliff defenders for a rebound in their women’s basketball game Tuesday at Biola University in La Mirada. (Photo by Keith Durflinger)
LA MIRADA – After a successful road trip to Hawaii recently, the Biola Women’s Basketball team came back to the mainland for a non-conference game slightly short-handed.
The Eagles, who are off to a good start this season with an overall 8-5 record, are in the playoff hunt with an early 4-2 PacWest record in fourth place in the 11-team conference.
The team was a bit short with two players left behind on their recent Hawaii trip Jan. 6-8, due to Covid quarantine.
In addition, coach Alan Nakamura was absent from Tuesday’s (Jan. 18) 61-54 loss to visiting Westcliff University (Irvine), as he stayed behind with the two players
The Eagles defeated both Hawaii Pacific (72-65) and Chaminade (65-53) on the island road trip.
Initially, the opening game of the trip was scheduled to be the Hawaii Hilo game, but due to Covid protocols at the Hilo campus, the game was moved to the back end of the three-game trip. Unfortunately, Biola landed in protocols and that game was cancelled. Multiple players had to stay back, with all but two back on the La Mirada campus.
Last Saturday’s game against Point Loma was also postponed due to Covid protocols.
The Westcliff contest was the first of seven consecutive home games for the Eagles – three of which are the Hawaii schools, beginning Saturday (Jan. 22) against Chaminade.
“There’s an awful lot going on, but we just had to deal with the circumstances that were dealt with,” Biola assistant coach Gamal Smalley said. “We’re praising God that we at least had a game to play.
“Our head coach and our starting point guard are locked in a room in Hilo, Hawaii watching the game on the computer.”
It only got worse for the Lady Eagles team, explained Smalley.
“Our leading scorer just got off of a plane on Monday and hadn’t touched a ball in a week,” explained Smalley. “Three other players are also in the same predicament.”
That all led to a subpar performance in the game against Westcliff, which came into the game with a 5-7 record.
Biola, which only led briefly in the early going of the opening quarter, trailed by a handful of points for most of the game.
The Warriors built up their largest lead of the game, 16 points, 50-34, with eight minutes left in the fourth quarter.
With 2:23 left in the game and trailing by 13 points, 56-43 and with the game seemingly out of reach for Biola, the Eagles began a comeback.
“I was pleased with the effort at the end,” said Smalley, of the late comeback. “We just never gave up and I love that about our team to have character and so they fought to the end. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to overcome that deficit and we were handed a difficult loss.”
Biola outscored Westcliff, 11-5, in those last couple of minutes to end the game on a positive note, as leading scorer for Biola, freshman guard Amiah Simmons and redshirt sophomore forward Jordan Rabe scored four and three points, respectively, in that time frame.
In the opening quarter, it was a low-scoring affair, with the Warriors holding a 14-8 lead.
Both teams stepped up the scoring the remainder of the way, as Westcliff built up a nine-point halftime lead, 31-22.
A layup by Rabe at the 3:12 mark of the second quarter brough the Eagles within two points, 24-22, but Westcliff finished the half with seven consecutive points.
Westcliff stretched the lead to 16 points by the end of the third quarter, 48-32, but the fourth quarter was a different story for the Eagles with a 22-point outburst.
Rabe led the way in the quarter with nine points.
As a team, the Biola bench outscored Westcliff, 25-3, in the game.
In the game, Rabe (8-17 FGM-A, 2 Blks, 2 Stls) had a team-high 17 points and a game-high 15 rebounds (8 ORE, 7 DRB).
Rabe was one of the players who just returned from Hawaii and had minimal practice.
“I actually just got back on Friday (Jan. 14), so I had two practices before this game,” Rabe said. “The team had been practicing with three people before four of us returned.
“Now, just to be here and have two practices was good.”
As for the Hawaii trip, Rabe said, “It was super fun and it’s always a good bonding trip for the team. It was an experience and just having the whole team together was really good for us. It didn’t end up like we wanted to with quarantine and all.”
Simmons, who was still getting in some running after the game for additional work, added 11 points in the game. She is the leading scorer with a 17.1 average per game so far this season.
Red shirt sophomore Stephanie Lee (1-3 3PM-A, 2-2 FTM-A, 5 RB, 1 Blk, 1 Stl) added nine points, while graduate student Autumn Hopson (4-4 FTM-A, 5 RB, 1 Stl, 1 Blk) and redshirt junior Aysia Johnson (2-2 FTM-A, 7 RB, 3 Stls) had six points each.
“Obviously dealing with the Covid situation and the end of our Hawaii trip was kind of crazy and a lot to go through,” said Lee, who along with the team last year, played only 13 games. “We’ve been trying to do our best to work together as a team and come out here and play better.
“I think this is the first time we haven’t had the head coach the whole time I’ve been here.”
Lee commented on the last few minutes of the Westcliff game and the brief comeback, saying, “Our coaches were trying to give us a little boost and have us amp up our energy. We tried pressing at the end which helped give us a little more energy for us. I feel like it was a good decision by the coaches and just press full court.”
Leading the way for Westcliff with a pair of 20-plus points scored was Trinity Vasquez and Bailey Hawkins, with 21 and 20 points, respectively.
On the boards for Westcliff, junior Remy Hare and Hawkins grabbed 11 each.
What they said
Aysia Johnson, Biola junior guard: “The game was tough and we had a lot of tough circumstances. We had about five girls that were able to practice during the week. Mentally, I think we were all ready to go and prepared but just didn’t get it together.
“It definitely is nice to play a full season (this year) and I think we’ll have a good run in the playoffs.”
Taylor Hall, Biola sophomore guard: “It’s been interesting. I was one of the first ones to come back from Hawaii. We had three (players) the first day and four (players) the second day. It was difficult, but it was a good week of practice. We got a lot of shots up, but it’s obviously not the same as game time. It was definitely an adjustment, not an excuse, but we should be better moving forward. It’s a good time to learn and to grow.”