THOUSAND OAKS — The offense never got going, the big plays went the other way down the stretch and the Occidental College women's basketball team lost to Cal Lutheran University 54-50 at Gilbert Arena on Saturday, snapping its six-game winning streak and bumping the Tigers out of first place in the SCIAC standings — Redlands (12-5, 6-0 SCIAC) beat Cal Tech to take over the top spot.

"We came in against a very aggressive team, we had opportunities and they made more plays than we did," Occidental coach Heidi VanDerveer said.

It was an unfamiliar spot for the Tigers (13-3, 5-1 SCIAC) trailing in the second half trying to erase a lead.

Down seven with 5 minutes to go, Michelle Naito-Lo (Monterey Park) hit a pair of free throws and Makenzie Brandon (Seattle) found Katelyn Rowe (Carlsbad) for a layup on consecutive plays to bring the Tigers within three. Then, with just over two minutes left, Brandon went coast-to-coast drew a foul and made both foul shots to cut the Regals lead to one.

But Channing Fleishmann buried a 3-ponter on the next possession for the Regals (10-6, 4-2 SCIAC) and Oxy lost its first Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game of the year.

The Tigers shot just 31 percent from the field and were uncharacteristically out-rebounded 40-34.

Makenzie Brandon, the SCIAC's leading scorer, finished the game with a double double — 20 points and 14 rebounds — but was just 6 for 21 from the field. Fleishmann led Cal Lu with 17 points.

Part of Oxy's problem scoring was a result of having both its starting post players, Rowe and Elizabeth Messick (Reno, NV), spending most of the game in foul trouble. Rowe and Messick played just 16 minutes between them in the first half, spending most of it watching with two fouls. Early in the second, what looked like a clean block forced Messick back to the bench with a frustrating third foul. Rowe and Messick were held to just seven points and six rebounds between them.

One small moral victory for the Tigers was the emergence of Naito-Lo.

The sophomore shooting guard who missed the first nine games of the season with an injury to her shooting hand, played much more like the starting sharp-shooter that averaged 8 points per game and shot 38 percent from beyond the 3-point line last season. Naito-Lo scored 14 points, hit a pair of threes and went 6 for 6 from the free throw line — before Saturday she had scored just eight points and made two three's in six games played.

"I think this is her first real game back where she had to compete," VanDerveer said. "She showed that she is extremely aggressive and the more she gets into the flow, the better off she'll be."

The good news for the Tigers is that a win in their next game over the University of Redlands at home on Thursday puts Oxy right back into first place, and Saturday's loss could even shift the pressure from the defending SCIAC champions to the Bulldogs.

"I would hope that we are a mature enough basketball team, which we are, to learn from this game and apply it to our next game," VanDerveer said. "Redlands is a very talented team and we're going to have to play very well."