LOS ANGELES — It was everything you would have expected from the league's top two teams.
The Oxy drum line played loudly, a rowdy Oxy student body cheered on its feet for 40 minutes and the game came down to the final play.
But a miscommunication between Michelle Naito-Lo (Monterey Park) and Makenzie Brandon (Seattle) resulted in Oxy's 23rd turnover — and the most costly — in the Occidental College women's basketball team's 53-49 loss to Cal Lutheran at Rush Gymnasium on Saturday.
The Tigers fall one game back of the Regals in the loss column in the SCIAC standings and into a tie for second place with Redlands.
Liz Little (Littleton, Colo.) nearly came up with a steal on the ensuing inbounds pass, but was instead whistled for a foul on what looked like it could have been called a jump ball.
Cal Lu's Channing Fleishmann hit one of two free throws at the other end and the Tigers had one more chance. Little got one more three off from the corner that missed just long.
"We had our had chances despite being sloppy with the ball for most of the game," Occidental coach Anahit Aladzhanyan said. "The ball didn't bounce our way, we didn't execute when we had opportunities and we ended up on the wrong side of this one because of it.
"I'm still proud of our team and there is a lot of basketball left to play."
The lead changed hands 18 different times and neither team had more than a four-point lead the entire night.
The Tigers (13-7, 8-3 SCIAC) were even with the Regals (19-3, 11-2 SCIAC) with 2:24 left in the game after Brandon drew a double team and found Messick just inside the top of the key to even the game at 47.
Cal Lu's Starla Wright drew fouls on consecutive possessions, making three of four to give the Regals some distance.
Brandon had a game-high 14 points, Messick added 11, and Little, Naito-Lo and Marquisha Corely (Tucson Ariz.) added eight. Oxy didn't get any point production off its bench though and shot just 38 percent as a team.
Katelyn Rowe (Carlsbad) led the Tigers with seven rebounds.
Cal Lu's Erica Whitley and Starla Wright each scored a team-high 13 points.
The Tigers are back in action at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Feb. 7.