LOS ANGELES — For the first 30 minutes, the Occidental College men's basketball team couldn't hit water if it fell out of a boat. Three-pointers, free throws and even layups made the basket look like it had a lid on it.

But after an extremely cold start to the game that put them in a 34-15 hole with 13 minutes and 23 seconds left in the second half, the Tigers full court pressure defense began to force turnovers and Oxy overcame a 3 for 24 start from the floor to beat Saint Joseph's (Me.) 50-48 at Rush Gymnasium on Wednesday.

The Tigers fell behind 22-11 at halftime and didn't look much better at the beginning of the second half. Their offensive looks weren't bad, but the Monks' matchup zone defense seemed to make Oxy pause for just a moment.

It wasn't until the Tigers went on a 14-3 run around the 10-minute mark in the second half that the Tigers looked like they might crawl back into the game.

Andrew Johnson, Juwan Rice and Austin Hawk led the Tigers with 10 points each. Taylor Walton had 11 rebounds and Andrew Garrison grabbed nine off of the bench. Spencer Levy scored eight points and Kory Hamane added six, including a pair of much-needed, second-half three-pointers. 

Quinn Richardson-New led the Monks with 12 points and Zach Blodgett added 10.

From the Coach: "It was just one of those nights where nothing we threw up there went in," Oxy head coach Brian Newhall said. "But we did play our best half court defense of the year to keep us in the game and our press got over the hump in the second half."

Turning Point: With the score tied at 48 and less than 10 seconds left, Saint Joseph's Jordan Tripp forced up a desparate 20 footer that was blocked and recovered by Juwan Rice. Rice kicked it ahead to a streaking Johnson, who finished the layup well out in front of the pack.

With no timeouts left to draw up a play, the Monks committed their last turnover as Johnson defelected and stole the inbounds pass and dribbled out the clock.

Next Game: The Tigers return to action on Saturday, hosting Pomona-Pitzer at 4 p.m. in their first SCIAC game of the year.