LOS ANGELES — Andrew Johnson was on his game, scoring 27 points on 11 of 18 shooting.

But the Occidental men's basketball team couldn't overcome an early deficit despite getting close at the end, in a 74-65 loss to Cal Lutheran at Rush Gymnasium on Sunday.

Season Impact: The Tigers fall to 5-1 overall and 0-1 in SCIAC. Cal Lutheran improves to 7-0 and 1-0.

Johnson scored in the mid post, low post and did well attacking the basket off of the bounce. He also had six rebounds and three assists.

Joe Compagno scored 11 points for Oxy, Jeevin Sandhu added 10 and Caleb Yellin-Flaherty scored nine off of the bench. Ryan Kaneshiro chipped in four points, six rebounds and four assists.

Oxy's Austin Dewitz played excellent defense and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds before fouling out with 6 minutes to play.

The Tigers couldn't stop Austin Cole, who found himself open for corner threes during a big afternoon shooting the ball. Cole finished with 27 points, including 16 in the first half and five three-pointers. Adrian Francis scored 16 and Wolfgang Wood added 15 for Cal Lutheran.

After trailing 38-31 at halftime, the Tigers made a run to even the game in the second half at 12 minutes and cut the Kingsmen lead to three points with 1:04 to play. Caleb Richey broke the Oxy defense down off of the bounce and got to the rim to extend the lead back to two possessions and give Cal Lutheran control of the game.

Next Game: The Tigers break for the holidays until returning to action against Cal St. Maritime at Westmont on Dec. 28. Oxy resumes conference play on Jan. 5 against Caltech.