CLAREMONT, Calif. (Feb. 27, 2010) – Trailing by 10 points at halftime, the Tigers erased that deficit with a 12-1 run to open the second half of action, but despite eight ties and six lead changes, Occidental College saw its season come to an end at the hands of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Champion Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags before a packed house at Ducey Gymnasium tonight.

A slow start for both teams heated up down the stretch as the teams see-sawed in the final minutes of the second half, with 3:35 to play Sean Anderson put up a pair to knot things for the final time of the night. UR went up but three and Jack Hanley quickly reciprocated with a jumper to pull the Black and Orange back within a point. Although Oxy held the Stags without a field goal over the final 2:21 four consecutive free-throws gave the Stags a five-point cushion. Hanley again clawed in with his second three-pointer of the night to put the Tigers within striking distance at 64-62 with nine seconds to play. A quick foul put CMS' Conner Faught at the line and he made one, but the Tigers quickly saw their season end moments later.

While freshman Eric Leider scored a game-high 19 points with five assists and Hanley was next in line with 16, on 7-for-9 shooting, the Stags put four different players in double figures with Chris Blees leading the charge as CMS advanced to the SCIAC Tournament Final tomorrow night.

Occidental shot nearly 52% from the field while CMS was 44% accurate, but the Stags out-rebounded the Tigers 32-27, pulling down 13 offensive rebounds to Oxy's eight. Deshun McCoy and Joseph Anderson had nine rebounds apiece for Occidental and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, respectively.

The loss ended the Occidental season with a 17-9 overall record while CMS lives to play another day. The scenario for the SCIAC Tournament championship game unfolded across the street from CMS.

In the second semi-final game the Kingsmen and Sagehens needed two overtimes to determine a winner and host Pomona-Pitzer turned away the Cinderella run put forth by Cal Lutheran University, who swept the second half of SCIAC play, with a 74-71 victory at Volkel Gymnasium to earn the right to play to represent the SCIAC in the NCAA Division III Tournament.  

Occidental bids farewell to four seniors but return a solid core of athletes in 2010-11.

Article by: Tracy Maple, Sports Information Director