LA MIRADA, Calif. – Missing Honorable Mention All-American Zach Taylor, the 16th-ranked Carroll College Saints men's basketball team fell on the road to Biola University 59-48 Saturday evening.

The Eagles led by just a point at half (28-27) before outscoring the Saints 31-21 after the break en route to the 59-48 win.

The Saints fall to 8-3 on the season while Biola is now 13-1 with two wins over top-20 teams in consecutive games.

Carroll tallied a season-low 34.7 percent (17-49) from the field and tallied just six assists on the game, also a season low. The Saints were also outrebounded 36-26.

"We had our shoot-around next to the Pacific Ocean, and apparently we should've practiced throwing it into the massive thing because we couldn't shoot tonight," head coach Carson Cunningham said. "We played fantastic defense against one of the nation's toughest teams, but we just struggled to knock down shots. And a lot of our looks were pretty darn good."

Match Burnham led Carroll with nine points and Lorel Johnson and Sam McMahon tallied eight each.

The Carroll defense shined holding Biola to their second lowest point total of the season and well below their season average of 74.5 points per game. The Eagles were able to lock down the Saints and hold Carroll to fewer than 60 points for the first time this season.

"We have to give Biola credit. They played bruising D, and they executed some things well late," Cunningham said, "We expected tough calls, and we knew they had guys who can cause damage; we just didn't expect to struggle so much with our shooting. Looking ahead, getting better looks and knocking down the good ones we get are things we need to work on."

Taylor's absence was felt on the offensive end. Cunningham said the Saints' leading scorer and top assist man will make his return to court shortly. The long season is a grind for any player and Taylor leads the Saints in game time coming into this weekend by 60 minutes, an extra game and a half more than his teammates.

"We're being conservative with Zach," Cunningham said. "He's been banged up a bit from ankle to head. It's been a taxing stretch. He should be good to go soon."

The Saints are now off for eight days for Christmas before facing Pac-12 opponent Stanford for an exhibition game on Dec. 27 in the Bay Area.