Photo by Lily Calvert

Los Angeles, CA — The Oxy men's basketball team hosted the University of La Verne Leopards on the Tiger's senior night. 

Oxy's senior's were definitely ready to leave everything they had out on the court for their last home game and that showed through their play. The Tigers would get down by a couple of points early but would be prepared to keep it a close game. 

About halfway through the 1sy half the Leopards would go on a run to stretch their lead out to 8 points but Oxy was ready to respond with some made shots and get right back into it. With 6:37 left in the half Andrew Waldman nailed a jump shot to get the game all knotted up at 27 points. 

Aiden Williams and Sydney Shipp would hit 3-pointers as the half was coming to a close to stretch out the Oxy lead to double digits. When the half ended the score would be 49-35 in favor of the Tigers. 

Oxy stretched that lead up to 18 points early in the 2nd half but the Leopards were not going to go away quietly. They began to make 3-pointers and jump shots to start inching back into the game. By the time it was a little over 12:30 left in the game, the score was down to a 60-54 advantage for the Tigers. 

Oxy was ready to respond with their own run as Anthony Hollerich made a layup and a jumpshot to get the Oxy lead back up to 6 points after La Verne had gotten it down to 2 points. Kyle Dosa and Hollerich would each make a layup soon after but the Leopards were responding with baskets of their own to stay in the game. 

Aiden Williams would knock down a big 3-pointer to give the Tigers a 76-69 lead with under 4 minutes to go in the game. La Verne was able to pull closer with made free throws and Oxy would respond with free throws of their own. 

With 6 seconds left in the game the Leopards inbounded the ball before running the length of the court and throwing up a deep three pointer that found the bottom of the net as time expired to tie the game and force overtime. 

La Verne would score the first few baskets of OT and not look back as they went on to win the game by a score of 95-86. 

The performances by the Oxy seniors were huge nonetheless as Kyle Dosa pulled in 12 rebounds while Anthony Hollerich had the team high of 27 points while also picking up 5 rebounds and 3 steals. Sydney Shipp had 15 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals.  

Despite the loss the Oxy seniors showed the true heart that they had in their years of Oxy basketball that will always be appreciated by the Oxy faithful fans.