LOS ANGELES, Calif.– With school back in session, not only did the students show up tonight, but the Occidental College men's basketball team, was fired up and looking to extinguish a winless streak in Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play. The Tigers showed they were ready to play from the start in the defensive battle, opening up a 25-14 lead at the intermission en route to a low scoring 42-30 victory over the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens tonight at Rush Gymnasium.

"Give the game ball to our home crowd," Head Coach Brain Newhall said following the victory, "Their enthusiasm energized our team defense, especially in the second half."

Occidental charged out to a 12-4 lead and pushed the advantage to 14 points, at 23-9, with 4:55 to play before the Sagehens scored back-to-back buckets, for the first time of the game. In the first eight minutes of the game Deshun McCoy took the Tigers on his back, scoring 10 points as he got off to a great start.

Oxy shot at a 55 percent clip from the floor and Jack Hanley erased an 0-for-3-pointer streak that plagued him for the past three SCIAC games, which sparked the Black and Orange.

When Hanley hit the only Tigers' three with 8:57 to play in the opening half, he gave Oxy a double-figure lead, which they would maintain throughout the majority of the contest.

Neither team really ever found a rhythm because the defenses each executed on their respective end of the court, covering their territory with vengeance throughout the game. Occidental held PP to an 11-for-49, 22 percent, shooting night while they managed to find the bottom of the net on 44 percent of their shots from the floor, overall.

Occidental was tougher on the glass, grabbing 36 rebounds to Pomona-Pitzer's 31, but the Sagehens came down with 12 offensive boards, which luckily for the Tigers produced just six points. Oxy used seven offensive rebounds for five points, all coming in the second half.

The only two double figure performances of the evening came from McCoy and Jake Copithorne who finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds, respectively.

"Jake continues to be the most improved player in the league," Newhall reiterated. "He played with the heart of a lion tonight, pulling down 11 rebounds and dishing out (a game-high) five assists."

Hanley finished with seven points, four assists and three steals while Ty Cobb handed out three assists with six points and seven rebounds in the first SCIAC start of his collegiate career.

"Ty has continued to show improvement every day and tonight he stepped up with an outstanding performance in his first college start," Newhall added. "He was a tough on the defensive boards all night."

As a unit, the Tigers bound together tonight with everyone who stepped on the court making an impact.

Drew Dockweiler scored eight points and finished with three steals, three rebounds and an assist.

"Our bench gave us a huge boost tonight," Newhall noted. "Drew played the best game of his collegiate career and Nick [Robinson] played a rock solid floor game."

Occidental (7-9, 1-4 SCIAC) will look to continue their winning ways when they return to the friendly confines of Rush Gymnasium on Wednesday, Jan. 26 to host the Caltech Beavers at 7:30 p.m. 

Article by Tracy Maple, Sports Information Director