LOS ANGELES — The Occidental men's basketball team kept its winning streak alive, beating Chapman 75-63 at Rush Gym on Wednesday to improve to 12-0 on the season.
Austin DeWitz led Oxy with 24 points on 8 for 15 shooting from the field and 8 for 12 from the free throw line. He also had five assists, five rebounds and anchored Oxy's defense that played very well in the first half.
Caleb Yellin-Flaherty continued his outstanding play on both ends of the court, finishing with 17 points, 13 rebounds, six assists and two steals.
Zach Baines added 15 points, five rebounds and had two big time blocks. The senior from Stamford, Conn. scored 50 points against Pacific (Ore.) two weeks ago and was named to the D3hoops.com Team of the Week earlier in the day on Wednesday.
Ryan Kaneshiro played his normal gritty game with tough on-ball defense and good leadership and passing on offense. He finished with a game-high nine assists to go along with four points, four rebounds and just one turnover. Kaneshiro is leading the SCIAC in assists per game (7.3) and is third in rebounding (8.3) as a 6-fot-2 guard. He has a remarkable 80 assists and 12 turnovers overall this season in 12 games played.
Jacob Adler scored 11 points, including a pair of big threes on back-to-back possessions as the Panthers desperately tried to into Oxy's lead late in the second half.
Jonny Crosthwaite played solid post defense through the better part of the game on Chandler White and had four points and four rebounds.
The Tigers went up big by halftime, leading 39-19 at the break, but never really put away Chapman in the second half. The lead went up to as much as 21 and down to as low as 12 points as the teams traded baskets.
Cam Haslam led the Panthers with 28 points on 11 for 20 shooting and 4 for 7 from the 3-point line, scoring 20 of his points in the second half. He was one of several Panthers to deal with foul trouble throughout the night. Four of Chapman's five starters had at least four fouls and White fouled out.
Season Impact: Oxy improves to 12-0 overall and 3-0 in SCIAC play.
The Tigers are off to one of their best starts since the 2006-07 Oxy squad started the year off 11-3 with its three losses to NCAA Division I Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo, NCAA Division II Cal St. Stanislaus, and D3 powerhouse St. Thomas (Minn.).
Chapman falls to 5-6 overall and 1-1 in SCIAC. The Panthers opened the SCIAC season with an 87-71 win against Cal Lutheran on Dec. 5.
Next Game: Oxy is back in action at Caltech on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. The Beavers are 6-4 so far this season.
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