IRVINE, Calif. - The Golden Eagles battled the team from La Mirada tough Thursday night. When two rival teams meet late in the season, it's bound to be a back-and-forth affair. This game was no different.

CUI gave Biola all they could handle from the opening tip until the final buzzer. Being aggressive on both sides of the ball seemed to be the point of emphasis for CUI head coach Ken Ammann.

The Green and Gold hounded Biola scorers throughout the night, and on offense CUI drove the ball into the paint with force. Junior forward Bryce Fitzgerald and sophomore Connor Gleason broke down the Biola defense in the first half. Fitzgerald was bodying defenders in the paint which led to him leading the Golden Eagles in scoring by dropping 15 points on the night.

Gleason came off the bench and led the second unit with his nifty ball-handling skills and acrobatic lay-ups. The Mission Viejo native also knocked down a trey late in the first half to cut into the Biola lead.

"Connor's improvement on the defensive end of the floor is even more impressive than how he's improved on offense," said Ammann. "That was an All-Conference point guard that he did a great job on defending."

As both teams headed into the locker room for halftime, Biola held a 38-29 lead. That nine-point lead would soon evaporate once the second half got underway thanks in part to junior Alpha Okoli and sophomore Freddie Dybala.

Okoli came out in the second half looking to push the pace for CUI. Okoli led the team in scoring in the second half, and Dybala hit a three-pointer to cut the Biola lead down to one.

Down 10 points with two minutes to go, the Golden Eagles didn't back down. Coming away with turnovers started the CUI come-back. Then Gleason and fellow sophomore Kobe Sanders hit some timely threes, and with 30 seconds left Biola only led by four.

"We held Biola to three offensive boards and two threes which is really hard to do," said Ammann. "That was an A-plus on the battling-as-hard-as-we-can effort. We made it hard for them to run their stuff and we had a ton of good shots. If a couple more of those good shots go in, it's a different outcome."

CUI is back at home Saturday Feb. 18 to battle with Hilo at 7:30 p.m.

CLICK HERE for the full CUI men's basketball schedule