LOS ANGELES, Calif.–  A late spark could not negate a slow start tonight at Rush Gymnasium for the Occidental College men's basketball team who dropped a tough 52-49 contest to the visiting University of La Verne Leopards as they remain winless in Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in the young 2011 season.

A physical game from the start saw the teams called for 39 total fouls, but neither team took advantage of those opportunities. The usually solid free-throw shooting Tigers were unable to connect on their free chances, going just 9-for-21 at the line tonight. ULV was slightly better, hitting 50 percent (12-for-24) of their free-throws.

The Leopards came out red-hot, opening an 8-0 lead before Deshun McCoy scored the first two of his 10 points in the game to get Oxy on the board. ULV looked to their 6-foot-6 center, Alex Wolpe, for 12 first half points on 6-for-7 shooting, giving the Leos the spark they needed to take a 26-15 advantage into the intermission.

ULV led by as many as 15 when Wolpe scored in the paint. A few minutes later Sam Stapleton shifted the momentum to the Tigers' end of the floor when he finished off an and-one to drop the double figure Leo lead to 41-34 with 7:22 to play in regulation.

With 1:05 to play Kris Montoya hit his only three-pointer of the game to cut the deficit to three at 50-47. As time ticked away, so did the Tigers' chances as they misfired on three shots and a pair of free-throws over the final minute of action.

Montoya and McCoy finished with 12 and 10 points, respectively while Hanley finished with nine.

After Wolpe started hot, he scored just three points in the second half to finish with 15, but Trevor Woodland led all players with 20, scoring 11 over the final 20 minutes of play.

ULV (6-7, 1-1 SCIAC) shot at a 39 percent clip tonight while Oxy finished at 37 percent. The Leopards, led by Woodland's 4-for-5 performance, was 43 percent from behind the arc.

Occidental slightly out-rebounded the Leopards 36-35 and came down with 14 offensive rebounds, which led to 11 points. Jake Copithorne led all players with 11 boards, four coming at the offensive side of the court and Montoya recorded six. Copithorne added a pair of blocks and both he and Montoya, who tallied four, each came up with huge blocks in the final minutes of play.

The Tigers forced 15 Leopards' turnovers, converting those into 17 points, 15 coming in the second stanza. Occidental once again took care of the basketball with just nine combined turnovers.

It was Feb. 4, 2006 when La Verne last defeated Occidental on the court, 82-78, in Eagle Rock.

Occidental (6-7, 0-2) hosts the University of Redlands (5-8, 2-0) on Saturday evening at 7:00 p.m. following the women's tip-off at 5:00 p.m. UR defeated Caltech, 71-67, in overtime tonight.  

Article by Tracy Maple, Sports Information Director