LOS ANGELES — With playoff contention on the line, the Occidental women's squad didn't have enough in the tank late to pull the upset over the first place Chapman Panthers on Thursday night.

Junior guard Ashton Reid paced the Tigers with 15 points and five rebounds, but her efforts weren't enough as the Panthers (17-5, 11-2) came away with the 71-62 win. The Tigers are now sitting at an 11-12 record on the season, and fall to 5-9 in SCIAC play.

Tiffany Kho and Crystal Goodwin added 13 and 10 points apiece to go along with Reid's stellar performance. Andrea Villanueva led Chapman with 21 points and seven assists, and teammates Sandra Gao and Kimi Takaoka each added 17.

"All of our guards played well, and our posts took care of business inside rebounding," Tigers head coach Anahit Aladzhanyan said. "Overall I thought our team played well, we just came up a little bit short."

In a game that went back and forth for all 40 minutes, the Tigers were able to cut it to a four-point game with 3:06 left in the second half. Clutch free throw shooting for the Panthers (7-8 down the stretch) served as the final nails on the coffin.

"We got within four late and needed one more stop, but the ball just didn't bounce our way," Aladzhanyan said. "I'm very proud of our effort against the top team in the conference. It was a good performance from us."

Senior Elizabeth Messick, who is averaging a near double-double on the season, finished with nine points and three rebounds. Fellow senior Brittni Walker added seven points and five rebounds.

The Tigers will compete in their final home game of the season this Saturday against Whittier College.