THOUSAND OAKS — It was a championship atmosphere with two championship teams squaring off for the right to play for an NCAA Postseason bid.

The Oxy drumline competed for airtime with the ipod during timeouts and 150 Oxy students made the trip to Thousand Oaks, cheering on their feet for all 40 minutes.

But in a rematch of last season's SCIAC Postseason Tournament semifinals, and a matchup of the last two SCIAC champions, Cal Lutheran made one more play than the Occidental College women's basketball team, edging the Tigers 69-67 in overtime at the Gilbert Sports Arena on Thursday.

The Regals (22-4) advance to the SCIAC Postseason Tournament final, hosting Chapman on Saturday.

Oxy finishes its season 16-10.

Cal Lu has beaten Oxy four times in a row by a total of 10 points.

Oxy trailed by one in OT, 68-67, with 24 seconds on the clock and its star Makenzie Brandon (Seattle, Wash.) at the top of the key with the ball. Brandon drove right, crossed back to her left and missed a runner in the lane with contact.

The Tigers fouled Keeley Anderson with 14.3 seconds left. She hit the first free throw, but missed the second.

Marquisha Corley (Tucson, Ariz.) grabbed the rebound and passed to Michelle Naito-Lo, who crossed half court slowly with 6 seconds left. Naito-Lo tried to drive right, but got stopped and kicked it out to a guarded Liz Little (Littleton, Colo.). Little caught the ball with about 1 second on the clock, pump faked and took a bounce to her left, trying to shake her defender, but she didn't have enough time or space to get a good look as her shot was deflected as the buzzer sounded.

Brandon finished with 20 points, 12 rebounds, five assists and three steals. Just 5 minutes earlier, she made her biggest play of the game to send it into OT.

Down 60-58 at the end of regulation, Brandon drove hard right, spun back left and found Corley for a wide-open layup with 14 seconds left. Katelyn Rowe (Carlsbad) blocked a shot with 2 seconds left at the other end and Cal Lu missed on a desperation inbounds play as time expired.

Elizabeth Messick (Reno, Nev.) bailed out the Tigers at the basket with seven blocks and also had 15 points and six rebounds.

Starla Wright led Cal Lu with 20 points and 13 rebounds. Fleischmann added 17 points and 13 rebounds.

Cal Lu made a run at the beginning of the second half, forcing Oxy to claw its way back for the rest of the period. Channing Fleishmann scored an and-one and then Anderson leaked out on the next Oxy miss, scoring a breakaway layup to give Cal Lu its biggest lead of the game, 46-38 with 12:30 left in the game.

The Tigers chipped away and chipped away, led by Brandon.

The 5-foot-11, 2011-12 SCIAC Player of the Year grabbed two offensive boards on one possession, and then converted an and-one, cutting the Cal Lu lead to 51-47 with 8:15 to play.

Oxy struggled to get any closer than four points until Rowe hit one of two free throws and Brandon made a left-handed layup, making it 57-56 with 2 minutes left in regulation.

Jazmyne Porter made one of two free throws for Cal Lu, Messick countered with two of her own and then Porter made two more, giving the Regals a 60-58 edge with 1:09 left.

Neither team scored again until Brandon found Corley.

Little hit a pair of threes early in the second half to curb Cal Lu runs, the second making it 39-38 with 15 minutes to go.

The Reglas played without the star of last year's semifinal matchup Erica Whitley, who tore her ACL in the final 2 minutes of Cal Lu's last regular season game. Last year, the 5-foot-9 senior had the driving layup that beat the Tigers on the last possession at Rush Gymnasium.

It was an ugly game offensively early in the first half as both teams got settled in.

Messick had a pair of buckets and Naito-Lo hit a three to put Oxy up 10-9, 8 minutes in. Then Stephanie Scamman (Northridge) hit four free throws after getting fouled on two 15-foot jump shots, giving Oxy a 15-12 lead.

Anderson knocked down two threes in the first 10 minutes.

Every time Brandon caught the ball she had the attention of all four help-side defenders. So she stuck to her midrange game, hitting four jumpers for eight of her 10 first-half points.

Wright was effective on the offensive glass and at the free throw line by forcing the issue inside for the Regals. Despite Messick's length and four blocked shots, the most active player in the league scored 12 points and had five rebounds in the first half.

The Regals crushed Oxy on the offensive glass, grabbing 13 boards at Oxy's end, and outrebounded the Tigers 29-16 in the half.

The Tigers countered by pressing the Regals selectively, forcing 12 turnovers on seven steals, creating opportunities for themselves in transition.

Oxy graduates Brandon, Little, Corley, Rowe and Scamman, all five centerpieces on three SCIAC championship teams.

Brandon, who could win the SCIAC Player of the Year Award for the second time this year, is likely to an All-American and will go down as maybe the greatest Occidental women's basketball player of all-time.