LOS ANGELES, Calif.– On Wednesday evening at Rush Gymnasium, the crowd was vocal and the Occidental College men's basketball team used their defensive presence coupled with a 22-point night off the bench from Kris Montoya to earn a 53-43 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory tonight.

Just over four minutes into the opening stanza, trailing by a trio, Jack Hanley scored in the paint to get things started.  Montoya then took it upon himself to break 5-4 and 7-6 deficits over the next three minutes, capping off his run with a layup in the pain, on an assist from Nick Robinson, to break a 9-9 tie and ultimately take control of the contest as the Tigers never really looked back.

Sophomore Deshun McCoy scored the next seven Oxy points to which the Beavers netted just four of their own. Over the final 4:18 of the first half the Occidental defense stepped up as the Black and Orange pushed their halftime lead to 10 at 24-14, holding their opponents to scoring in the teens for the second consecutive night.

As the second half opened, things got physical with five fouls, including a pair of technicals, in the first three minutes of play, setting the tone for the final 17 minutes.

Cooler heads prevailed for Occidental, who came up with a number of impressive defensive stands while jumping on the back of Montoya. The freshman, who has spent much of the last two weeks wearing a walking boot to protect an injured foot, scored 15 points on 5-for-7 shooting (nine of which were scored consecutively), while going 4-for-6 at the free-throw line.

"Montoya really stepped up in crunch time with some big plays on the offensive end," Head Coach Brian Newhall reiterated following the game.

Occidental put three players in double figures with Montoya leading the pack as he was a point shy of his career high-23 points against the American Sports University earlier this season. McCoy chipped in with 16 points and Hanley finished with 12. The Tigers handed out 15 assists with Robinson and Jake Copithorne handing out four, apiece while Hanley and Montoya each tallied three. Robinson was also responsible for the other three points.

"Robinson stepped in for Stapleton and  played a great floor game with four assists and no turnovers," Newhall noted.

Offense was not the only thing working for the Tigers, who shot 49 percent from the floor tonight, as they played solid defense, holding the Beavers to just 5-for-26 in the first half on a shooting night of 33 percent.

Each team pulled down 28 rebounds and while Tech grabbed 10 on the offensive end of the court, they converted them into just six points while Oxy came down with four total offensive rebounds and scored five second chance points. Montoya was a rebounds away from his first career double-double, with nine, and Copithorne came down with five tonight. Hanley and Ty Cobb each finished with four. While McCoy grabbed just three, he had two of the four offensive rebounds tonight for Oxy.

"Once again Copithorne was the best defender on the court," Newhall added, "[Drew] Dockweiller had another great game off the bench as he played outstanding defense when we needed it most."

Occidental (7-9, 2-4 SCIAC) will travel to Thousand Oaks, Calif. on Saturday, Jan. 29 to play the Cal Lutheran University (8-9, 2-4) Kingsmen at 7:00 p.m. following the women's tip-off at 5:00 p.m. at the Gilbert Arena.

Article by Tracy Maple, Sports Information Director