FULLERTON, Calif. (Dec. 12, 2009) – If the men's basketball game at Titan Gym on the campus of California State University, Fullerton was just the second half, Occidental College would have won 40-39. Unfortunately, though, a shaky start and nine unforced turnovers in the first half hurt the Tigers as the Division I Titans defeated the Black and Orange 97-59 on a rainy Saturday night before 1,155 fans.

As expected, the Titans played aggressive man-to-man defense and had an overall impressive defensive unit. However, the Tigers executed what they set out to accomplish tonight as they nearly pulled up even rebounding, 33-32. Each team grabbed nine offensive boards while CSUF ended up with one more defensive rebound than Oxy who had 23.

Deshun McCoy led all players with nine boards, three offensive, while Jake Copithorne and Sean Anderson finished with five apiece. Eric Leider nabbed two of the Tigers' five steals in the game and Copithorne was credited with the only Oxy block of the night.

In the locker room during the intermission, trailing 58-19, the coaching staff was able to make some adjustments based on the tempo and intensity of the game.

“Our players were able to execute the changes and Deshun, Eric and Jack all did some positive things on the offensive end of the court as we played a much better second half,” shared head coach Brian Newhall.

Jack Hanley scored 13 points during a 15-for-29 second half for the Tigers while McCoy stepped up for 10 second half points. Leider, the Tigers' first half leader, poured in nine to finish with 16, tying with Hanley to pace the pack tonight. McCoy finished with 14, handing out a pair of assists. Oxy shot 52% from the field in the second half and turned in a stellar 7-for-10 effort from behind the arc with Hanley knocking down 2-for-2 as senior Huston Conti was 2-for-3.

One of the bright spots in the opening stanza was that Occidental pulled down four offensive boards (11 total) to the Titans' two offensive boards (12 total).

In the first half Fullerton made one shot less than the entire Tigers' team took, with 18 buckets, driven by Devon Peltier who came off the bench to score 14 on 4-for-5 shooting from beyond the arc as he finished with a game-high 21. CSUF shot an incredible 70% from the field in the first half, but the Tigers held the Titans shooters to a field goal percentage of 41% in the second half, and more impressively to just a 2-for-14 three-point performance.

"CSU Fullerton is a quality team and this was a great learning experience for us,” said Newhall. “I can not imagine a team playing a better first half than they did tonight; producing an incredible overall defensive intensity, coupled with 70% field goal shooting."

Looking to the future, tonight was a positive experience for the Tigers.

“This will clearly help up gear up for SCIAC play come the new year,” Newhall went on, “Tonight they exposed some of our weaknesses. The key is how you bounce back and I can't wait to get to practice on Monday.”

While CSUF snapped a three-game skid, improving to 4-3, Occidental saw a five-game win-streak come to an end. The road for Occidental (5-2) does not get any easier as they will prepare to host Southern Methodist University at Rush Gymnasium on Saturday, Dec. 20 at 2:00 p.m. for the second Division I match-up in as many games.