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LA VERNE — The Occidental men's basketball team is headed to the playoffs for the third year in a row.
Jacob Adler scored a game-high 21 points on 9 for 14 shooting, Caleb Yellin-Flaherty added 19 points also on 9 for 14 shooting, along with 15 rebounds, and Sydney Shipp had 15 points as the Tigers held off La Verne 81-71 on the road on Wednesday night.
Oxy is now playing for seeding and can be anywhere from No. 1-4 for the four-team tournament that determines the SCIAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament.
The Tigers fell in the SCIAC Championship game last season at Pomona-Pitzer after winning at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps as the No. 3 seed in overtime.
Ryan Kaneshiro led the way for the Tigers against the Leopards on defense after a bumpy start, keeping the ball out of the middle and away from the basket. He also had 10 points, nine rebounds and four assists.
Oxy held just a 42-37 lead at half, giving up seven threes to the Leopards with some sloppy defensive rotations. In the second half, the Tigers tightened up their on-ball defense and opened up the lead to 13 points by the 4-minute mark.
Kyle Dosa and Anthony Hollerich each added eight points for Oxy.
Sinai Enoch led La Verne with 18 points.
Season Impact: The Tigers improve to 18-5 overall and 10-4 in SCIAC play.
La Verne falls to 2-21 and 2-12.
Next Game: Oxy is back in action against Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday at 5 p.m.
