Photo by Dale Beck

Los Angeles, CA — Men's basketball was in Rush Gymnasium for the 110 Rivalry game against the Caltech Beavers. 

The game would start out with both teams playing strong defense and forcing missed shots. Sydney Shipp was leading the way for the Tigers in the 1st half, making a layup that tied the game at 11 with 12 and a half minutes left in the half. 

Caltech responded with a 7-0 scoring run before Andrew Waldman found himself wide open for a jump shot that he would cash in to cut the lead to 5 points. After a Caltech made jump shot, their lead expanded to 9 with 5 minutes left in the half. 

Waldman responded with a huge and-1 play where he would make the free throw and get momentum going back in the Tiger's direction. Caltech was doing their best to get a significant lead as they would score two buckets to get the lead back to 9.

Sydney Shipp would pull up for a three on the next Oxy possession and immediately cut the lead back down to 6. He would then make a pretty left handed layup to get the lead to 4 before the half to get the Tigers right back in the game. 

Oxy would come out strong in the second half with Shipp quickly making a 3 to cut the Tiger deficit to only 1 point. With 14 minutes left in the game Aiden Williams would knock down a huge three-pointer with an assist from Andrew Waldman. 

As the game was nearing the end, Waldman stepped up again and made a nice layup that was followed by Jacob Koretz being found open in the corner for 3 on the next possession, giving the Tigers a 36-31 lead. This game was a defensive battle all the way to the end.

Oxy would make multiple clutch stops on the defensive end to hold off the Beavers attempts to complete a comeback and seal the win. The final score of the game was 39-34. This was Oxy's second SCIAC win of the season and the win put them just in front of the Beavers in the standings and in a good spot to fight their way into the top 4 of the conference. 

Next Game: Oxy will travel to La Verne to battle the Leopards (3-3 SCIAC record) in a SCIAC matchup on Wednesday, January 18th.