LA MIRADA, Calif. – Concordia switched up its starting lineup for the rematch with Biola on Saturday. Freshman Drew Ramirez earned the starting nod for the first time in his career and it seemed to give the Green and Gold a spark as the visiting Eagles took it to Biola in the first half with a renewed confidence.

Down 22-17 at one point in the first half, Kayle Knuckles ignited a 9-0 run by sandwiching a pair of treys around a three-pointer by Ramirez. That sequence put Concordia ahead 26-22.  The Green and Gold would take a 35-33 advantage into the locker room at halftime.

Back-to-back treys by Knuckles and Jalen Sanders pushed CUI's lead to six after the two Colorado natives came out strong to start the second half. Shortly thereafter, Biola regrouped and closed the gap and for a long stretch it was neck-and-neck.

Dayshone Henry converted a layup with 6:43 remaining to give CUI a 61-60 lead. However, Biola answered with a three-pointer by Maximo Milovich and refused to allow CUI to regain the lead after that. Biola ultimately earned an 80-70 victory.

"That's two road games in a row where we competed well," said CUI head coach Ken Ammann.  "We were the better team first half but we need to understand how to really dig in last 5-8 minutes where we were closed out in both of those games.  If we compete like we did tonight we will have way better results in 2nd round of conference play.  We took a big step forward tonight and we have to continue to do much more of the same. We cannot even go backwards in the slightest and we have to start winning home games."

Knuckles led Concordia with 16 points and made four shots from behind the arc. Henry added a dozen and Dominic Hovasse chipped in with 10 points.

Coming off a career-high 12-point performance against Biola on Friday, Ramirez contributed five points, two assists and two steals.  Fellow freshman Mac Stodart added nine points and Darius Lee filled up the box score with nine points and eight boards.

Concordia is scheduled to return to action Friday, Feb. 12 when the Eagles host Point Loma. The men's game is slated to start at 4:30 p.m. following the women's contest at 2 p.m.

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