OLIVER KIMOKEO | sports editor

There is only one game on the Cougar Athletics schedule which elicits the dramatic emotion displayed from coaches, players, and spectators alike on Jan. 29 in the Felix Event Center. This game is indeed the Biola men’s basketball game.

Playing Biola is more than just a game against a GSAC opponent. It is about honor, pride, pain, tradition, and the bragging rights of knocking the arch-rival off their course.

Neither team is the predator nor the prey. APU and Biola are both worthy adversaries—they trade punches and jabs until the final punch. There are no knockouts in this rivalry; just a strong consistent commitment to keep yourself alive and be the victor at the very end.

The Cougars took this edition of the battle with a 60-50 win over the Eagles. APU has won against Biola six consecutive times—a streak achieved last in a eight-game Cougar stretch in the mid-1990s and only one other time in the rivalry’s history.

Once you’re affiliated with APU and Biola, you are always a Cougar or an Eagle. Some have been affiliated with the two Southern California Christian universities for generations—others are infants who are just developing their first taste of the rivalry.

Cougar senior guard Davon Roberts is a newcomer to the annual skirmish of Cougar claws and Eagle talons. He is a player with a local background, as he was raised in West Covina and was a graduate of Glendora High School. He attended Sacramento State to get the big-game atmosphere he desired.

But Sacramento State did not work out for Roberts, who played in 83 games over a three-year span as a Hornet. He did not get the opportunity to break his game open at Sacramento State and the Hornets failed to receive an invitation to the March Madness, accumulating a 37-50 record in the process.

Roberts wanted to return to his home area and get a chance to play with a winning program. The Cougars were ecstatic to oblige with his requests. According to Roberts, the energy from the Biola game rivaled what he saw at the NCAA Division I level.

“Everyone was telling me about this big game,” Roberts said. “It was what I expected with a good environment.”

The win against the Eagles could be the medicine that the Cougars prescribed at the beginning of the season but did not receive until now. The conclusion of the 2007-2008 season will reveal the true impact of this game.

The Cougars had been on a steady decline from grace since November. They were ranked No. 8 in the NAIA preseason poll and were picked by GSAC coaches to finish second in the conference. After an unimpressive 5-4 start in the first month of play, the Cougars were deemed unworthy of national inclusion in the rankings for the first time in almost three years. They were left off the Dec. 5 list and they have not been back since.

APU is floating high on a cloud of confidence after achieving a three-game winning streak in an eight-day span. All three games, including Biola, were hard-fought victories against quality GSAC squads. At the halfway point of the conference schedule, the Cougars are now in position to make the transition from pretender to contender with a 7-3 record in their last 10 games.

Biola and APU played their latest content with a physical fierceness. Loose balls were fought for with a splicing passion unmatched by any preceding performance this season. 31 fouls were shared among the schools and neither team achieved a point off a fast break. Initially, there was no room for movement, whether it was the space between the Cougar and the Eagle player or the standing room in the Blackout student cheering section.

“I did not want to turn this into a slugfest where Biola could be fresh at the end,” head coach Justin Leslie said. “We pressured the whole second half and never stopped. I think their legs gave out first. Though our bench didn’t do a great job of scoring, they did a great job of stepping up on defense.”

The first half was a free-for-all tussle in which neither team held more than a five-point advantage in points. As the 20-minute half progressed, the energy of the basketball complex increased with every Cougar breakthrough and every Eagle miscue. While the Cougars had the blessing of the Blackout section, they could not take advantage of the Eagles’ mistakes. APU could not create enough room for comfort and left the half with a 30-26 lead.

“The way we prepared was no different than other games,” freshman guard Mike Caffese said. “We knew we had to get defensive stops, bring the intensity of defense, and execute our plays.”

The second half continued the game-long trend of the “can you top that?” feud. With every successful Cougar field goal, an Eagle would respond with one of his own, except for one key moment.

With six-and-a-half minutes to go, Roberts was successful on only his third 3-pointer of the season. The 3-pointer established the Cougars with a 48-43 lead and the Eagles were left in a state of surprise.

It was now Biola’s opportunity to respond. Eagle guard Josh Salo responded successfully to a previous key Cougar 3-pointer made by Cougar senior forward Todd Martin five minutes before this moment. Salo is now left in the same scenario but he could not knock down another 3-pointer to bring the Eagles back in the contest. The Cougars had control after the Salo miss and they did not relinquish their groove for the rest of the APU-Biola melee.

When the final seconds ticked off the clock at 9:17 p.m., the Cougars had the victory and the Blackout students were absorbed in a frantic osmosis of victorious hullabaloo.

They rushed the center of the court as if they had just won the ultimate title of all championships. They realized that they had just won this thrill of thrills, an undeniable bliss only found when a rivalry game is won.

This is the greatest moment in the life of a Cougar student. They know they are superior to their arch-rival and nothing is more gratifying to an APU supporter than to rub their supremacy in Biola’s face. But this moment is not a permanent institution; there will be a day when the Eagles will tip the scales of victory back into their favor.

The Cougars prefer not to think about that day. They know the day will come but they refuse to acknowledge its possibility. This victory over Biola is all the campus needs for now.

It is an indisputable fact that the Cougars are winners and the Eagles are losers. This is the only fact of significance that APU subscribes to in the freeze-frame climax of triumph over Biola.