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Los Angeles, CA —Oxy's men's basketball team was at home for a big matchup against the Chapman Panthers. The Panthers were 1 game ahead of the Tigers for 4th place in the SCIAC entering the game. 

Andrew Waldman came out hot in this game, scoring the first 6 Tiger points to give Oxy a 6-3 lead early on. After free throws from Micah Breaux and a jumper from Jacob Koretz the Tiger lead was 10-3 after 5 and a half minutes of play. 

Aiden Williams made a 3-pointer that had the lead up to 10 points and after Chapman responded with a made basket, Williams knocked down a jumper on the next Oxy possession. The Tigers continued to get good looks on offense, and Nicky Clotfelter got in on the scoring with back to back made layups that had the Tigers up 23-9.

Duncan Ellis made a layup that had the lead up to 16 points with 7 minutes left in the half, but Chapman went on a 8-0 scoring run to get the lead down to 8 points shortly after. The Panthers would hit a 3-pointer just before the half closed to get the lead down to 11 points with Oxy up 34-23. 

Oxy opened the 2nd half with a 3-pointer from Micah Breaux who also made a layup on the next possession. A 3-pointer from Nicky Clotfelter had Oxy up 44-27 with 15 minutes left in the game. Chapman continued to try to fight back as they went on a 7-0 scoring run to get the lead down to 10 before Koretz made a layup to stretch the lead back to 12. 

The Panthers put together another run right after, however, as they scored 8 unanswered points and suddenly the Oxy lead was only 4 points with less than 10 minutes in the game left. Andrew Waldman decided to take over the game to close it out for the Tigers and put an end to Chapman's runs at the lead. 

In the closing minutes, Waldman scored or assisted on 15 Oxy points including a huge pass to Clotfelter that gave Oxy a 56-53 lead at the time. After that pass, Waldman made a 3-pointer to get the lead to 6 and then a jumper to get the lead to 8 with less than 2 minutes to play. 

Chapman was forced to start fouling for a chance to win the game and Oxy would knock down free throws to secure the win by a score of 67-58. With the win, Oxy moves into a tie with Chapman for 4th place in the SCIAC as both teams hold SCIAC records of 5-4. 

Oxy will look to build off of the big win in their next matchup with La Verne on Saturday, January 27th in Rush Gymnasium at 2:00pm.