LOS ANGELES — Eric Leider (Las Vegas) had one of those nights where anything he threw up would have gone in the basket.
The senior was unconscious from beyond the arc, knocking down seven threes, four of which were in the final six minutes of a close game, to finish with a game-high 27 points.
But the Occidental College men's basketball team let one too many offensive rebounds (many off of free-throws) fall in the hands of Redlands players, who came away with a 96-94 victory at Rush Gymnasium.
After Kris Montoya (Portland, Ore.) fouled out with 4:18 left, Leider, who was 1-6 from three point range in the first half, began to take over.
With 1:54 left in the game, he hit his fourth three to pull Oxy (0-3 SCIAC, 2-4 overall) within two (94-92), as Rush erupted like it was a playoff elimination game.
"I was feeling it," Leider said. "Especially in the second half. I was kind of struggling in the first half but I knew I had to keep shooting."
Redlands (3-0 SCIAC, 4-2 overall) snatched two offensive rebounds on the next possession, but didn't score. With 26.5 remaining, Leider drove in the lane and was called for an offensive foul.
The Tigers were forced to foul, and Brian Kuklok, who was 6-8 from the charity stripe, hit one out of two to give Redlands a 95-92 advantage.
After Conrad Liebowitz (Santa Monica) scored inside off of a feed from Deshun McCoy (Los Angeles) to come within one point (95-94), Kuklok again knocked down a free-throw with 5.1 seconds remaining to go up by two before the final buzzer sounded.
Leider had his best game of the season, but Oxy let one too many rebounds go on free-throw situations.
"I was very happy with Eric [Leider's] performance," Occidental head coach Brian Newhall said. "He had a big game, but we just didn't block out on free-throws."
Liebowitz had 15 points and nine rebounds and Montoya had 13 points for the Tigers.
Freshman David Yetenikyan (Glendale) continues to show flashes of low-post maturity. Showing a repertoire of post-moves inside, Yetenikyan also cleaned up the glass for his team to finish with 12 points and nine boards, six of which were on the offensive end. His impact was most felt when he fouled out with 10:34 remaining in the game, as Oxy began to commit mental mistakes on the glass.
Still, the Tigers showed they could play with the league's best.
"Every game we're getting better," Leider said. "Redlands is 3-0, and we're 0-3, but the game was really close. We're still getting through the kinks of our new offense and pressing, and obviously we hate losing, but we know we need to pick it up right now."
Though Redlands would lead by as many as eight in the first half, Oxy only trailed by four points at the break (42-38), largely due to good ball movement.
Sam Stapleton (Los Angeles) directed the offense, swinging the ball around the perimeter to shift the defense and get guys open threes. Stapleton finished with seven assists, and allowed Leider, who has primarily played the point, to play off-guard and have more of a shoot-first mentality.
Yet Redlands was equally poised on offense. Six players scored in double figures: Alex Rudd had 16 points, Ricky Peetz had 15 points, Tristan Kirk and Brian Kuklok both had 14 points and Josiah Brensdal had 13 points and 14 rebounds inside.
The Tigers will look to pick themselves up against likely the biggest test of the early season against No. 20 Whitworth on December 15 at 7 p.m.
Mirin Fader is the Oxy men's basketball beat writer. She also writes feature stories on Oxy athletes, coaches and alums. She is currently a Team Writer for the Los Angeles Clippers (Clippers.com), and also contributes articles to Dime Magazine (dimemag.com). This past summer, Mirin wrote for the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks. All of her work, including her archived Oxy stories can be found at her website: mirinfader.com