PASADENA — Jay Miller scored a game-high 22 points for the Occidental men's basketball team in a 65-59 loss at Caltech on Wednesday.

The Tigers led for most of the game, but couldn't find a basket for an 8-minute stretch late in the second half, losing the lead and their spot in fourth to the Beavers.

Miller, who is second in the SCIAC in scoring, has scored 20 or more points in seven SCIAC games and has two others with 19. He scored just 12 against Redlands in Oxy's SCIAC opener after missing the second half with an injury. 

Season Impact: Oxy falls to 10-9 overall and 4-6 in SCIAC play. The Tigers are trailing the Beavers and Redlands by one game for the fourth and final SCIAC Postseason Tournament spot with six regular season games to play.

Caltech is now 7-12 overall and 5-5 SCIAC and would have the tiebreaker over Oxy in the event of a tie.

Oxy led the entire first half, taking a 33-27 lead into halftime. In the second half, Oxy stayed in front until Brent Cahill hit a layup for two of his 12 second-half points with 6 minutes to play, putting Caltech up 48-47.

After Austin Dewitz scored a layup on a nice pass by Jeevin Sandhu with 10:26 remaining, Oxy did not make a field goal until Miller finally broke the dry spell with less than 2 minutes to play. By that point the momentum had shifted and Caltech was comfortably in front of Oxy.

Oxy fouled the Beavers into extra points and struggled to guard the ball. Nasser Al-Rayes, Caltech's 6-foot-10 big man, hit a pair of and-1 3-pointers that deflated the Tigers.

Cahill fed off his energy, scoring off of drives down the stretch.

Andrew Johnson, who was named the SCIAC Male Student-Athlete of the Week on Tuesday, scored 13 points for the Tigers, but had just three of them in the second half. Dewitz chipped in 11 points and had Oxy's most complete game with four assists, four rebounds, two steals and three blocks. 

Free throws cost Oxy as well. The Tigers were 5 of 13 from the line, compared to Caltech's 18 of 25.

Cahill finished with 17 points, Al-Rayes had 16, David LeBaron had 11 and Kc Emezie added 10 for the Beavers.

Next Game: The Tigers host Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (3-7 SCIAC) at 5 p.m. on Saturday at Rush Gym. The Tigers have beaten CMS in the last two meetings between the teams dating back to last season.