LOS ANGELES — "Chalk this one up to game planning and execution," Occidental men's basketball coach Brian Newhall said after his Tigers upset Pomona-Pitzer 64-56 at Rush Gymnasium on Saturday.

The Tigers pounded Pomona-Pitzer on the glass, elected to fight through screens, rather than switch them against the Sagehen's motion offense and held off desperate full court pressure throughout the last 10 minutes of the game.

In the first half, Oxy's well-prepared defense limited Pomona-Pitzer to an abysmal 3 for 30 from the field, a defensive stand Newhall credited to his assistant coach Anahit Aladzhanyan's "excellent scouting report" and his players "commitment to her strategy."

"Coach '(Aladzhanyan) came up with an excellent defensive game plan and the guys executed it about as well as they could have," Newhall said. "I was happy with our defensive effort all evening. They were ice cold from the field in the first half. … We had a little something to do with that."

Despite the defensive stronghold though, the Tigers (8-10, 3-4 SCIAC) didn't lead in the first half until Ryan Chong (San Diego) banged in a pair of three-pointers on consecutive offensive sequences, putting Oxy up 16-13 with 8 minutes to play in the period. Then in the second, the Tigers extended their largest lead of the game 43-26 on a Sam Stapleton (Los Angeles) three-pointer with 10 minutes left.

Pomona didn't go away.

The Sagehens (10-7, 5-2 SCIAC) slowly chipped away at the lead for the next 8 minutes using a frantic full court pressure defense that turned Oxy over seven times late in the second half.

But with the lead cut to seven and Pomona at the height of its run, Jake Copithorne (Newton Centre, MA) found Kris Montoya (Portland, OR) who nailed a 17-footer from the corner to put away the Sagehens.

Oxy's Jack Hanley (Seattle), who led the game with 16 points, was a perfect 6 for 6 from the free throw line in the last 1:45 to seal victory, and 8 for 8 on the game.

Conrad Liebowitz (Santa Monica) had his seventh double double of the season, scoring 10 points to go along with 10 rebounds, for the Tigers. Oxy's Deshun McCoy finished with 12 points and nine boards.

With the win, the Tigers snap a four-game losing streak and put themselves right back in the mix for the SCIAC postseason tournament — Oxy now sits in fifth place, just 1.5 games back of the final playoff spot currently occupied by Redlands.

"We've had some tough stretches this year, but if we can crack that top four anything can happen," Newhall said. "The idea is to get into the SCIAC tourney and take our best shot at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps or Pomona or Whittier or whomever it may be."'

The Tigers can pull within a half-game back Redlands and fourth place with a road win over the Bulldogs (10-8, 5-2 SCIAC) on Wednesday.

"Every game from here on out is the biggest game of the year," Newhall said. "It's going to be fun."