LOS ANGELES — Elizabeth Messick was one block shy of a triple-double, Michelle Naito-Lo was clutch from the foul line and the Occidental College women's basketball team held off a late surge by La Sierra for a 67-62 win at Rush Gymnasium on Friday.
With a scrappy Golden Eagles team quickly erasing a 13-point halftime lead, Naito-Lo knocked down eight consecutive free throws in the last 2 minutes, 28 seconds of the game. Her biggest pair game with 3.8 seconds left to make it a two-possession game.
"We do a lot of free throw shooting in practice and it really paid off," Naito-Lo said. "I just stepped up to the line and did what I always do. They went in and we were able to hold on for the win."
Messick scored 16 points, grabbed 15 rebounds, had nine blocks and four assists.
"I thought Michelle's free throws and (Messick's) play on both ends of the court were the difference today," Oxy head coach Anahit Aladzhanyan said. "They are our two best players and we go as they go."
Oxy lit it up from the outside in the first half and was effective in transition to build a 40-27 halftime lead. The Tigers went 8 of 18 from the 3-point line and scored 16 points off of nine La Sierra turnovers on their way to their highest scoring half of the season so far.
The Tigers took their biggest lead when Ashton Reid buried a 22-foot three off a handoff from Elizabeth Messick, putting them up 38-19 with 3 minutes to play in the first half.
Natalie Hawthorne, who led La Sierra with a game-high 23 points, hit 3-pointers on two separate occasions in the second half, cutting Oxy's lead to single-digits. Her first made it 49-40 with 10:58 to play in the game and her second, 54-45 with 6 minutes left.
Each time the Tigers responded.
The first time, Messick scored an and-one on a jump hook and converted the free throw to put Oxy back up 12.
A few minutes later, Oxy guard Ashton Reid made a string of three important plays to help hold off the Golden Eagles. She deflected a pass at the defensive end of the court, grabbed an offensive rebound on a miss and then finished a finger roll in the paint near the end of the shot clock to put Oxy up by 12 near the 8-minute mark.
La Sierra had cut the lead all the way down to 61-58 with 1:25 left, but Naito-Lo and Messick hit four free throws in a row to make it 65-58.
Oxy is back in action on Saturday, playing Crown College (Minn.) at Caltech at 4 p.m.