THOUSAND OAKS, Calif.– In a game that saw 10 lead changes and seven ties, including a Jack Hanley three pointer to force overtime, the Tigers were unable to stop Cal Lutheran's Greg Grimm down the stretch as Occidental College fell 55-52 in Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference action at the Gilbert Arena tonight.

Hanley, who finished with a team-high 16 points, got the overtime scoring started and Drew Dockweiler, who turned in another stellar game, making big plays at key times, made a free-throw to put the Tigers up 50-47. Hanley would score the final two points with a pair of free-throws with 2:07 to play, giving the Black and Orange a two point lead.

Grimm was too much for the Tigers to handle, single handedly defeating the Tigers in overtime. The senior guard scored all eight CLU OT points, knocking down three three's before sealing the Kingsmen victory with two free-throws with 27 seconds to play. Overall he finished with 29 points, connecting for six three-pointers while going 7-for-10 at the line.

Fittingly, the teams were knotted, 22-22 at halftime. In the opening stanza the teams were never separated by more than four points, which was a 16-12 Oxy advantage with 6:42 to go. Sam Stapleton scored with eight seconds to go to tie things for the third time.

CLU opened the second half with a 6-0 run and led by as many as seven (33-26) just over seven minutes in, but the Tigers chipped away. Dockweiler defeated defenders to score in the paint and tie things up at 35-35 before sinking a pair of free-throws to lock the teams at 41-41. Over the final 3:27, Occidental erased a trio of three-point deficits, with the final sending the game into OT.

After a strong start to the extra period in which Oxy forced a pair of Cal Lutheran turnovers and led by a trio, the tides turned on one play. Aaron Van Klaveren was unable to convert a layup, but an offensive team rebound put the ball back in the hands of the Kingsmen. The Purple and Gold quickly got the ball out to Grimm, who started his overtime scoring tear.

Occidental shot 40 percent from the floor, holding Cal Lutheran to a 35 percent shooting clip, but the big difference tonight was the three point shooting. Oxy was 22 percent while CLU was 36 percent. At the charity stripe, Oxy was 53 percent after going 0-for-5 in the opening half. They recovered to shoot 5-for-6 in the second half and 3-for-4 in overtime. CLU was just 8-for-22 (36 percent) at the line.

Hanley was joined in double figures by Stapleton with 12, on 6-for-9 shooting. Hanley and Nick Robinson each handed out a pair of assists.

CLU placed two other players in double figures tonight with Van Klaveren and Jayvaughn Nettles scoring 10 apiece.

Overall the teams were extremely evenly matched, which was evident by the score and the point spread throughout the game. On the glass, each team grabbed 40 rebounds, although CLU grabbed 16 offensive rebounds to the Tigers' 11. While CLU turned the ball over 11 times, Oxy came away with eight steals, which led to seven points. On the contrary, Oxy committed 12 turnovers, leading to four Kingsmen steals that ended in seven points.

Once again Jake Copithorne led all players with 11 rebounds and Hanley came down with seven. Ty Cobb pulled down four rebounds, all on the offensive end of the court. Deshun McCoy turned in a nine-point, seven rebound night with three blocks and a steal, but played just 25 minutes because of foul trouble. Dockweiler came off the bench to score nine points with three rebounds an assist and two steals.

Van Klaveren finished with 10 rebounds for a double-double, adding a block and three assists. Both Grimm and Jeremy Sulker-Hall tallied eight rebounds apiece. Grimm also had three assists and two of the four steals tonight for CLU.

Occidental (8-10, 2-5 SCIAC) will play another road game on Wednesday, Feb. 2 when they travel to the University of Redlands to play the Bulldogs at 7:30 p.m.

Article by Tracy Maple, Sports Information Director