THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (Feb. 4, 2009) –
In the first meeting of the season the Kingsmen pulled out a
victory over Occidental College at Rush Gymnasium, and tonight they
did the same at the Gilbert Arena for the first time since the gym
was opened in 2006. Cal Lutheran used a 44-29 first half advantage
to cruise to a 77-51 victory, handing the Tigers their third loss
of the season in Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic
Conference action.
The Tigers never led and saw themselves down
from the get-go but hung tight until CLU went on an 8-2 run mid-way
through the first half. Oxy was not able to claw their way back
into the game after the Kingsmen opened up a 10-point lead with
9:29 to play in the opening stanza.
Kyle Knudsen supplied CLU with 15 first-half
points on 2-for-2 shooting from three point range as the Kingsmen
were 4-for-5 from long range combined in the first half. Knudsen
closed out the game with 17 points as did Greg Grimm (on 5-for-6
shooting) to lead all players.
Occidental was at a huge disadvantage as far
as rebounding was concerned, grabbing just 13 to the CLU 33.
Justin Goltz led the way for the Tigers with five
of those rebounds while CLU's Andrew Meier had a game high
eight boards with Aaron Van Klaveren adding seven.
After shooting 40% from the field in the first
half, Oxy came back to shoot 45.5% in the second half, but Cal
Lutheran shot 63.6% in each half to finish 28-for-33 from the field
overall. The Tigers and Kingsmen scored 20 and 30 points in the
paint, respectively on the night. Meier and Van Klaveren each
reached double figures in the game as well with 10 each.
Sean Anderson, who earned
back-to-back SCIAC Athlete of the Week honors, was held to 10
points, which was the most of any Tiger. Jack
Hanley added eight and Goltz finished with seven.
David Ostrow dished out four assists, grabbing two
steals while Evan Shore had three assists and a
pair of steals as well.
As a team CLU was 15-for-17 from the charity
stripe, but Oxy converted just 5-for-10 chances, with Anderson and
Hanley going 2-for-2 apiece.
Defensively the Tigers forced 19 turnovers,
which led to 19 points while they committed 17 allowing CLU to
score 19 points.
Occidental falls below .500
on the season with the loss at 9-10 and hold a 5-3 SCIAC mark while
Cal Lutheran improves to 13-6, 5-3. CLU hosts second seeded
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (14-5, 6-2) on Saturday night.
Saturday night the Tigers will host the # 1
ranked Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens (10-9, 7-1) at a showdown in Rush
Gymnasium. In the first meeting of the season PP tore past the
Tigers on their home court. Tip-off is scheduled
for 7:30 p.m. following the women's game at 5:00 p.m.
