LOS ANGELES, Calif. (Jan. 30, 2010) – Following a
three-game road trip the Tigers returned to the friendly confines
of Rush Gymnasium where the Black Hole and the men's
basketball team came to make some noise. After opening up a 19-4
cushion 10 minutes into the game the Black and Orange took a
comfortable 30-14 lead into the locker room before holding on for a
64-56 victory over Pomona-Pitzer in Southern California
Intercollegiate Athletic Conference action tonight.
Coming off a buzzer beater loss to the University of Redlands on
Wednesday night, the Tigers regrouped and came out fired up and
ready to play. With the stands full and the pressure on, as PP
entered the game tied atop the SCIAC, Occidental wasted no time
taking control of the game.
Five minutes in the teams were separated by two points. Oxy then
used a 14-0 run, sparked by a Sean Anderson layup
in the paint on a pass from Peter Gierlach and
capped off with another bucket in the paint, from Deshun
McCoy, who poured in 14 first-half points on 6-for-8
shooting to lead the squad. The Tigers held the Sagehens to
6-for-25 (24%) shooting in the opening stanza as they were held to
just 14 first-half points.
The second half began with a 7-0 advantage for the Sagehens who
pulled within nine, but that run quickly ended when Jack
Hanley, Eric Leider and Jake
Copithorne returned the favor combining for seven
unanswered points of their own giving Oxy a 16-point lead.
Teams exchanged buckets over the next 12 minutes when PP made
things interesting. After Gierlach knocked down a pair of
free-throws, with 3:03 to play, the Sagehens David Liss, the
game's highest scorer, hit a three and a layup, with another
PP bucket mixed in, to shrink the Tigers' lead to 58-51 with
1:15 in regulation, the closest it was since the opening minutes.
Occidental was once again solid at the charity stripe down the
stretch with Huston Conti, Anderson and
David Ostrow all hitting 2-for-2 in the final 1:04
to clinch the win for the Black and Orange.
As a team, Oxy shot 44% from the field (36% from three-point
range) and capitalized on 17-for-21 free-throw chances as a
collective unit, led by Anderson who was 5-for-7 as he finished
with 13 points. Both Hanley and McCoy were 3-for-4 at the line.
Eighteen of the Tigers' points came in the paint.
On the glass, the Tigers were tough, grabbing 36 rebounds to the
Sagehens' 27, but they pulled down just one more offensive
board than PP with eight. Oxy scored eight second chance points
including a crowd roaring dunk from Anderson in the second half.
PP turned their shooting game on at the intermission, hitting on
52% of their second half shots to finish the game 39% from the
field. After going 0-for-7 from behind the arc in the opening half
they were 6-for-16 from the perimeter in the second. At the line,
they were 67% as a team. The Sagehens turned 14 Oxy turnovers into
19 points in the game and scored 22 in the paint.
Liss led all players with 18 points, followed by McCoy who had
17 (7-for-10) for the Tigers. Oxy had two players with 10 points
apiece in Hanley and Conti while Pomona-Pitzer's Justin
Sexton and Shawn Stephan finished with 14 and 12, respectively.
Hanley handed out a game-high five assists as well.
Anderson added 10 rebounds to his 13 points for the only
double-double of the game while Conti finished with five. Sexton
led the Sagehens with six. McCoy and Ostrow each recorded a block
and McCoy also came away with a pair of steals.
Occidental (13-5, 5-2) moves into a second place tie with
Pomona-Pitzer (9-9, 5-2) behind Redlands (10-8, 6-1) and
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (14-4, 6-1). On Wednesday, Feb. 3 the Tigers
travel to Whittier College where they face off with the Poets (8-9,
2-5) at the Graham Athletics Center at 7:30 p.m.
