LOS ANGELES — Freshmen Chad Tanioka (Culver City) and David Yetenikyan (Glendale) of the Occidental men's basketball team scored a combined total of just 10 points and neither player played more than 14 minutes in Saturday night's game against an athletic, high-pressure Pacifica team.
But the point guard and center were the game changers. With 14:05 minutes left in the second half, Tanioka threw the ball in to Yetenikyan, who surveyed his options, drew the defense in, then a few seconds later kicked it back out to Tanioka for three, giving Oxy a seven point lead. With the game's momentum in their favor from thereon out, Oxy held on to win 94-85 at Rush Gymnasium.
"It's nice to have those two guys on the floor," Occidental head coach Brian Newhall. "I thought Chad [Tanioka] played his best game as a freshman, and I like the way David [Yetenikyan] is spreading the floor for us inside.
"Our freshmen are playing a lot of minutes in these early games, and they're growing up and getting better each time. Along with that play, we made good choices in our half-court offense tonight."
After Tanioka's three, Oxy (2-1) didn't let up, responding with an 8-1 run with 7:51 left in the game capped by back-to-back threes by Eric Leider (Las Vegas) and Kris Montoya (Portland), then an and-1 running layup by Eric Eichinger (Radnor, Penn.) to put Oxy up 72-61.
Though the Gladiators (0-7) would trail by as many as 12 points in the second half, they came closest to chipping away at the Tiger lead with 2:01 remaining when Oxy fouled Ronald Coleman on a breakaway and-1 layup to bring them within three points (85-82).
But senior Deshun McCoy continued to provide leadership in the final minutes of the game, and his and-1 layup with 51.6 seconds left closed any possibility of an upset.
Montoya led all scorers with 29 points and seven rebounds in 32 minutes of play, while McCoy added 25 points and six rebounds. Despite first-half foul trouble, Conrad Liebowitz (Santa Monica) managed to score 16 points on 7-11 shooting and pulled down eight boards in just 20 minutes of play.
Pacifica had five players reach double figures. Austin Payne had 19 points and press-breaker Dion Hudson had 14 points. Shaun Weeks added 11 points and nine rebounds, Davon Oliver had 12 points and Ronald Coleman had 11 points.
Oxy's defense forced 23 Pacifica turnovers, something the Tigers themselves were looking to improve on after committing 29 turnovers in a loss the night before.
"Our defense was strong tonight," McCoy said. "We came out with intensity and everyone communicated on defense. We really focused on not turning the ball over and limiting our fouls. I think we really relied on the conditioning our coaches put us through to be able to get stops at the end of the game."
Oxy begins SCIAC play earlier than usual this season against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps next Wednesday at home. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.