LOS ANGELES, Calif. (Feb. 21, 2009) – Tonight there was
not only a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
title on the line, there was a lot more. It was senior night. And
the game was against conference foe La Verne, who came-from-behind
to defeat the Tigers on the road earlier this season. The Tigers
used a packed Rush Gymnasium to their advantage as they hung on to
a 57-54 victory, wrapping up their second consecutive SCIAC
Championship.
In a match-up that saw seven ties and 14 lead changes, the
Tigers came out on top. At the mid-way mark Occidental trailed by a
pair, but hung in the game, never trailing by more than five points
before using a 15-0 run, sparked by a Gillian
Nugent three-pointer, to swing the momentum in their
favor. Of those 15 points. Brianne Brown scored
six of those points while Nugent sunk three consecutive shots from
long range.
La Verne was not going away so easily, chipping their way back
into the game at 56-54 with 58 seconds remaining, but with a second
left Brown sank one of two free-throw attempts to seal the deal for
the Tigers.
As she has done all season, Brown made tonight a senior night to
remember as she poured in 19 points while grabbing six rebounds.
Asha Jordan pulled down a team high eight rebounds
in her final regular season SCIAC game.
While Oxy grabbed just three more rebounds than the Leopards,
they were able to pull down 11 offensive boards, which led to 11
points. The also got inside against the ULV defense, scoring 26
points in the paint, holding the Leos to 14 points in the paint.
Occidental forced 12 turnovers, and scored 29 points because of
them, thanks in large part to Dior Williams who
finished with a season high seven steals while deflecting a number
of errant ULV passes.
The Leopards (18-6, 10-4) shot slightly better than the Tigers
from the field at 41% overall and were 100% from the free-throw
line, making all 12 chances.
Stephanie Babij had another big night, shooting
6-for-9 from the field, finishing with 13 points while also
grabbing six rebounds. Both Nugent and Britinee
Yasukochi had five assists.
Occidental finishes the regular season 20-5 with a 12-2 SCIAC
mark. They will host the fourth seeded Whittier College Poets
(16-9, 8-6) on Thursday evening at 7:30 p.m. in Rush Gymnasium as
the first game of the 2009 SCIAC Post Season Women's
Basketball Tournament. The University of Redlands (19-6, 11-3) will
host La Verne who drops to the third seed. The winner of those two
games will meet on Saturday evening at 5:00 p.m. on the home court
of the highest seeded team left to determine who will represent the
SCIAC in NCAA Division III post season play.
