LA MIRADA, Calif. – Dominican men's basketball fell short 69-66 in a tight battle with Biola Saturday night at Chase Gymnasium.

"We knew going into the game that Biola is very tough and physical," head coach Justin Argenal said. "They did a good job of getting into the lane and creating problems for our defense, especially in the first half. In the second half, we battled back and forth and gave ourselves a chance to win, but came up just short. Anytime we value the ball and are able to limit our turnovers we're going to have a chance to win."

Graduate center Justin Brown led five Penguins (4-7, 1-3 PacWest) in double figures with 16 points, while graduate guard Zamaria Odom and freshman guard Jorden Josephs each chipped in 13. Odom added eight rebounds with Josephs finishing with two blocks and two steals. Chris Rossow led all scorers with 23 points for the Eagles (9-2, 3-1 PacWest) while Michael Bagatourian added 22 points.

The Penguins were feeling it early as Zamaria Odom took advantage of the sagging Eagle defense to knock down the first 3-pointer of the game. Justin Brown followed up by backing down his defender before going up and under with the left hand for a layup to cap the opening 8-2 run. After Biola battled back to tie it up, Troy Murphy Jr. knocked down an elbow 3-pointer to make it 11-8 with 13 minutes remaining in the half. The Eagles took control from there going on a 12-2 run capped by Rossow's 3-pointer to make it 22-13 with 7:45 left on the clock.

Dominican slowly chipped away at the lead over the next several minutes before Odom knocked down his second shot from beyond the arc to cut the lead to two with under a minute left. After Bagatourian laid it in for two on the other end, Jake Blazona quickly took the ball the other way and found Jorden Josephs at the top of the arc for his first 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded to cut the Eagle lead to 36-35 at the break.

The Penguins carried their momentum into the second half as Josephs got an offensive rebound and a putback before Odom again hit from distance to spark a 7-0 run in the first two minutes of the second half, taking the 42-36 lead. After Biola cut the lead to one, Odom drove the lane and kicked the ball out to Blazona in the corner for three to maintain the 45-41 lead with 16:33 left on the clock. 

The Eagles seemed to be taking a similar path as they did in the second half as they followed the 3-pointer with a 9-0 run, but Murphy found Brown for a dunk to halt the momentum. After Josephs rejected Bagatourian, Blazona through the ball ahead to Anthony Dennis in transition for a layup to cut the lead to 50-49 with 13 minutes remaining in the game. Rossow knocked down a 3-pointer to swing the momentum back to Biola and Alex Wright capped the 13-2 run with a 3-pointer of his own to take the 63-53 lead with 7:28 on the clock. Dominican scored the next five points as Brown slipped a pass between two defenders to a cutting Blazona for a floating jumper to cut the lead in half over the next minute of play.

The teams traded points for much of the next five minutes with Dominican twice getting within one possession in the final minute. After Wright hit 1-of-2 from the charity stripe with 18.5 seconds remaining, Dominican found themselves trailing 68-65 with possession. The Eagles chose to foul rather than allow for the tie and Wright missed the backend of a pair of free throws and Odom rose for a chance to tie but the shot was off target.

Dominican wraps up its 2021 portion of the schedule Monday against Concordia University Irvine at 3 p.m. PST at CU Arena.