CLAREMONT, Calif. (Jan. 12, 2008)
– For Occidental College men's
basketball, the opening game of Southern California Intercollegiate
Athletic Conference action was not what the Tigers had become
accustomed to thus far in the 2007-08 season.
Entering the night riding a nine-game
win-streak, a strong Claremont-Mudd-Scripps team upset # 21
Occidental, sending the Tigers home with a 55-42 loss to open up
SCIAC play.
After Claremont-Mudd-Scripps opened the
contest with a 10-0 run in the first five minutes, Oxy chipped away
to pull within five at the half. However, the mid-way mark was
merely 20-15 in favor of the Stags.
A 14-4 run to open the second half gave
Occidental a five point lead, their largest of the evening. The
advantage soon turned back into a deficit for the Tigers, though.
A pair of CMS free-throws at the 10:45 mark
knotted the game at 31-31. The Stags regained the lead for the
final time when Chris Blees hit a shot with just over 10 minutes to
go in regulation. CMS continued on another 10-0 run and never
looked back.
Oxy struggled from the field all night,
shooting just 28% overall and 58.8% from the free throw line, while
the Stags put together a 44.2 field goal shooting percentage with a
combined 80% free throw average on the night.
The Stags out-rebounded the Tigers 37-28,
although Oxy managed to grab nine offensive boards to CMS's
seven.
Dan Winterbottom and Austin Soldner shared the
scoring lead with 14 apiece for the Stags. Connor
Whitman scored a team-high 12 points and Joe
Sasich tallied 11 for Oxy. Whitman was 4-for-5 from the
line.
Sasich was the Tigers' leading rebounder
with seven, four on the offensive end. Chris
Pitcher and Chris Hunt grabbed six
apiece. CMS's Chris Blees grabbed a game high nine boards.
Winterbottom and Gemayal
McBride handed out four assists each for the Stags and
Tigers, respectively.
Occidental forced 18 turnovers, but they led
to just seven points, while the Stags managed to convert 13
Tigers' turnovers into 15 points. Sasich and Pitcher each had
two steals for Oxy in the game.
The Tigers fall to 10-2 overall, 0-1 in SCIAC
as the Stags improve to 7-5 overall, 1-0 SCIAC.
Oxy will return to Rush Gymnasium to host
Caltech on Wednesday, Jan. 16 at 7:30 p.m. in their first home
SCIAC game of the season.
