AZUSA — Juwan Rice scored 20 points and snatched seven steals, but the Occidental men's basketball team had trouble stopping NCAA Division II Azusa Pacific in transition, losing to the Cougars 107-82 at the Felix Event Center on Tuesday.

Oxy falls to 1-1. Azusa Pacific, a member of the PacWest Conference, improves to 2-1.

Rice, who nearly had a quadruple-double in Oxy's season-opening win at Caltech on Saturday (20 points, 9 rebounds, 8 steals and 8 assists), showed off his speed and anticipation against a higher-level opponent, picking off passes left and right. He also shot the ball well from the 3-point line, going 3 for 5, and got to the foul line, converting on 7 of 10 free throws.

Spencer Levy played a complete game, scoring 15 points with six rebounds, three assists and no turnovers. Andrew Johnson recorded his first double-double of the season with 14 points and 10 rebounds. JJ Friedman chipped in 14 points and Austin Hawk added 11 as the Tigers had five players in double figures for the second game in a row.

Scoring wasn't the problem. Stopping a talented Cougar offense in the open court was. Azusa Pacific grabbed Oxy misses and often scored or created good looks within just a few seconds. 

"We like to compete so we enjoy playing quality NCAA Division II teams like Azusa Pacific," Oxy head coach Brian Newhall said. "There were some positives and we had stretches where we played good basketball, but you can't give up that many points and expect to win. They were a much better team tonight and we didn't do ourselves any favors on the defensive end or on the glass."

Troy Leaf led the charge for the Cougars, scoring a game-high 24 points on 8 for 13 shooting. The APU leading scorer had 25 points against UCLA earlier this year in an exhibition game.

APU shot 59 percent from the field for the game and outrebounded Oxy 44-31.

The Tigers play back-to-back games this weekend to open the season at home, starting with American Sports University on Friday at 7 p.m. and then Bethesda on Saturday at 7 p.m.

"We've got a fun stretch of basketball this week, with four games in a seven-day stretch," Newhall said. "We get another chance to compete on Friday."