The Tigers face Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in a battle of SCIAC frontrunners Wednesday at Rush Gym. Tip-off time is 7:30.
With steady ball-handling from guards Gemayal McBride, Connor Whitman, and Justin Zebb, Occidental shot a sizzling 76.5 % in the second half against Redlands. Sam Betty scored 22 of his school-record 47 points on dunks and lay-ups and threw down five dunks in the second half. He also set a school record for field goals made, hitting 22 of 26 attempts.
Redlands, which lives or dies by the three-pointer, didn’t shoot it well enough in the second half (9 of 32) to earn the victory Saturday night. The Bulldogs held a 56-54 halftime lead and held serve through the first nine minutes of the second.
But a scoring drought of more than four minutes, coupled with two key turnovers, led to a 14-0 Oxy run from which Redlands never recovered.
McBride scored the go-ahead basket on a lay-up with 10:27 remaining and gave the Tigers a five-point lead on a short-range jumper moments later. Back-to-back dunks and a lay-up by Betty boosted the Oxy lead to eleven before Redlands’ David Markus sank a three to stop the run.
The Tigers kept pace with a pair of lay-ups from Zach Phillips ’06 and another by Justin Zebb ’06. Oxy took its largest lead on the last basket of the game, a Betty dunk.
Phillips rebounded from a frustrated offensive effort against Whittier with 13 points, 13 boards, and five assists. Ivan Kostic added 12 points and 11 rebounds while Connor Whitman dished out five assists. The Tigers out-rebounded Redlands 58-31.
“We did a good job of handling the basketball and running our transition offense,” said veteran head coach Brian Newhall. “We can’t rest on our laurels though. CMS is another rock-solid team. They mirror us in a lot of ways, with their assist-to turnover ratio and aggressive man-to-man defense.”
Five of the Tigers’ last six meetings with CMS have been decided by seven points or less. Occidental split the series last season, defeating the Stags 70-63 to clinch an undefeated SCIAC home record.