COLORADO SPRINGS  — Elizabeth Messick was dominant inside, Michelle Naito-Lo scored 23 points and the Occidental College women's basketball team beat Colorado College 67-57 on Sunday.

Messick scored 11 points, blocked seven shots and grabbed 20 rebounds — 19 of them on the defensive end. It's a great sign for the Tigers considering the First Team All-SCIAC 6-foot-3 center has missed a substantial amount of the preseason due to injury.

Naito-Lo scored 19 of her points in the second half. She did most of her work from the foul line, shooting 12 of 14.

"Michelle has the ability to go off any night," Oxy coach Anahit Aladzhanyan said. "She is a special player and tonight she came up big for us."

Ashton Reid was 5 for 9 with 15 points and hit three 3-pointers.

After trailing 32-31 at the half, Oxy went on a 9-3 run to open the second half and never gave up the lead.

Oxy outrebounded Colorado College 58-43, a huge turnaround from its season opener against St. Olaf the night before when the Tigers lost the rebounding battle by 18.

"Bitsy was dominant inside tonight, especially on the boards, but I was happy with the way our entire team responded less than 24 hours after not rebounding well against St. Olaf," Aladzhanyan said.

Brittni Walker scored seven points and had seven rebounds and Eda Graham had nine boards.

The Tigers split their Colorado weekend, improving to 1-1 on the season.

Oxy faces Colorado College again on Nov. 22 at Rush Gymnasium.

Follow Occidental Athletics on Twitter @OxyAthletics

Like us on Facebook.