ORANGE — Scoring and stops don't always go hand in hand.

The Occidental College men's basketball team had more trouble stopping the ball than they did putting it in the basket, as they got beat in transition once Chapman found holes in their fullcourt press.

Oxy's first line of defense—the trap—was executed well, pushing the Panther guards to the sidelines. Yet that left the middle of the floor open, as the second line of the Tigers' defense was late to help inside. Chapman was able to find players for layups, beating Oxy 69-59 at the Hutton Center in the Tigers' first road game of the season.

"They exposed us on our late rotations in both the fullcourt press and the halfcourt offense," Occidental head coach Brian Newhall said. "Chapman is well coached and fundamentally sound. They get all the credit, but I did like our intensity a lot more in the second half."

The Tigers (0-2 SCIAC, 2-3 overall) would come their closest with 4:40 left in the game on a three by freshman Sebastian Ohara-Saft (Hilo, Hawaii), who contributed five points in 6 minutes, to cut the Panthers' lead to single digits (63-55). Despite a deep three by Eric Leider (Las Vegas) with 31 seconds remaining to cut it to ten, Oxy's comeback effort would come to a close.

Kris Montoya (Portland, Ore.) had a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds, while Deshun McCoy (Los Angeles) added 12 points in 20 minutes of play. Though Conrad Liebowitz (Santa Monica) had a modest stat lane of nine points and six rebounds, the center battled inside on offense. Kevin Cox (Sedona, Ariz.) came off the bench and brought good energy at the forward spot for Montoya.

But as a group Oxy struggled to find a rhythm offensively, shooting just 35.8 percent from the field. The Panthers (1-1 SCIAC, 2-2 overall), who joined the SCIAC this season, bumped cutters and made it difficult for the Tigers to get into the teeth of the defense to score inside.

The Tigers often successfully beat their man off the dribble, but once they got to the rim they committed eight charges collectively.

"We could have made the extra pass on a lot of opportunities, but just didn't read the help well," Newhall said. "We're still learning." 

Though Oxy committed 18 turnovers, they forced 17 Chapman turnovers.

Chapman shot 50.9 percent from the field largely on layups. Four players reached double figures: Colin Zavrsnick and Nick Dragovich each had 13 points, Colin Chadwick had 12 points, and Jordan Young had 10 points.

Oxy trailed 38-27 at halftime.

The Tigers look to get their first SCIAC win of the season next Wednesday against Redlands at home. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.

"They're the SCIAC favorites. We need to have two good practices and forty minutes of intensity against them on Wednesday," Newhall said. 

Mirin Fader is the Oxy men's basketball beat writer. She also writes feature stories on Oxy athletes, coaches and alums. She is currently a Team Writer for the Los Angeles Clippers (Clippers.com), and also contributes articles to Dime Magazine (dimemag.com). This past summer, Mirin wrote for the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks. All of her work, including her archived Oxy stories can be found at her website: mirinfader.com