CLAREMONT — The Occidental men's basketball team was 2.7 seconds away from improving to 5-2 and staying in first place in the SCIAC standings.
But Pomona-Pitzer's Mitchell Finkel tipped in Gibson Farone-Collins' miss off of a pick-the-picker out of bounds play as the buzzer sounded in regulation, sending the game to overtime tied at 62.
Crushed from having a near victory snatched out from under them, the Tigers were outscored 17-8, eventually falling 79-70 at Voelkel Gymnasium on Saturday.
Season Impact: The Tigers fall to 10-6 overall and 4-3 in SCIAC play. It's Oxy's first road loss of the season after winning at Redlands, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Whittier.
Pomona-Pitzer improves to 8-8 and 2-5.
Jay Miller and Andrew Johnson led the Tigers through some shooting woes against Pomona-Pitzer's 2-3 zone defense. Miller finished with a game-high 27 points, including 6 of 12 from the 3-point line, and Johnson had 24 points, along with nine rebounds.
Oxy shot just 39 percent from the field as a group and 30 percent from deep.
Spencer Levy added 11 points and four assists, but went 3 of 14 from deep.
Andrew Garrison grabbed nine rebounds for Oxy.
Farone-Collins led Pomona-Pitzer with 25 points and Daniel Rosenbaum scored 28.
Next Game: The Tigers are back in action on Wednesday against first-place La Verne (5-2) at 7:30 p.m. at Rush Gymnasium.