LOS ANGELES — Ryan Chong (San Diego) came up big time and time again when the Tigers needed him the most and the Occidental College men's basketball team held on for a 78-71 win against Caltech on Wednesday night in Rush Gymnasium.
The Tigers (6-8, 1-4 SCIAC) looked to be cruising their way to their first conference win when David Yetenikyan's (Glendale) free throw gave the Tigers a 61-46 lead with 11:35 left in the game.
But the Beavers (1-13, 0-5 SCIAC) roared back and slowly chipped away at the deficit. Alex Runkel and Collin Murphy hit consecutive layups, Michael Edwards drained a three and knocked down a free throw to pull the Beavers within seven, 61-54.
Eric Leider (Las Vegas) did his best to put out the fire by hitting a three and dropping in a floater in the lane, but with five minutes left, the Beavers finally tied the game 68-68 on Bryan Joel's three that capped off a 22-7 second-half Beaver run.
But Chong responded with a pair of clutch buckets. He drove in for a layup on the ensuing possession to put the Tigers back up, then hit another a minute later to give the team a 74-70 lead with 2:15 to go. The Tigers limited the Beavers to a lone free throw rest of the way.
Chong and the Tigers created the cushion they needed in the first half.
After Oxy fell behind early in the first half, the junior guard keyed a 10-0 Oxy run that gave the Tigers a 26-18 lead with 11:18 to go in the half. He hit a three quickly after Edwards' jumper put the Beavers up by two and added a layup during the stretch.
The Beavers got within three with 4:20 to go in the first half, but the Tigers closed out the half on a 16-5 run to take a 49-35 lead into the break. Chong added five more points during the run, Sebastian Ohara-Saft (Hilo, Hawaii) hit a three, and Ty Cobb (Menlo Park), Chad Tanioka (Culver City) and Yetenikyan each added two.
"Everyone stepped up tonight," Oxy head coach Brian Newhall said. "Our freshmen stepped in and made some big plays that helped us come out with a nice team win."
Chong finished with 17 points on 7 of 14 shooting.
Conrad Liebowitz (Santa Monica) notched his second double-double of the season, scoring 10 points and hauling in 11 rebounds. Leider ended the night with 18, Tanioka had 11, and Sam Stapleton (Los Angeles) added 10 and dished out five assists.
Edwards had a game-high 20 points for Caltech. Murphy and Runkel finished with 16 and 15, respectively.
Heading into the meat of the conference schedule, Newhall said he is pleased with the work his players have been putting in. "Our guys have been working very hard over the holiday break," he said. "We made a lot of progress."
Oxy returns to action on Saturday when it travels to Pomona-Pitzer to take on the Sagehens at 7 p.m.