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LOS ANGELES — The Occidental men's basketball team got up big and then held off Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 58-49 in a defensive battle at Rush Gymnasium on Wednesday night.

Led by the defense of Ryan Kaneshiro and Sydney Shipp, the Tigers forced 20 turnovers and had 14 steals, leading to transition opportunities and empty possessions for CMS. Kaneshiro had five points, five assists, five steals and five rebounds, and Shipp, who missed Oxy's past two games with an injury, played 30 minutes, finishing with eight points, four steals and two assists.

Jacob Adler led the Tigers on offense with 20 points, five assists, four rebounds and three steals, and Caleb Yellin-Flaherty had 12 points and eight rebounds.

For the second game in a row, first year Anthony Hollerich was impressive as a starter, scoring 12 points on 5 of 10 shooting, to go along with four rebounds two steals and a block.

Kyle Dosa was solid for Oxy on defense and grabbed five rebounds, and Isaak Ottmar grabbed four rebounds in 14 minutes.

The Tigers only shot 36 percent for the game, but held CMS to 34 percent, including 4 for 20 from three.

Oxy jumped out to a 35-16 halftime lead, but CMS was the better team at the beginning of the second half, quickly cutting the advantage to 37-34 with a big run of their own.

The Tigers stayed poised, bounced back and were able to maintain at least a double-digit lead from the 11-minute mark on after Yellin-Flaherty had a bucket to push the lead back up to five. 

Maxwell Kirsch led CMS with 18 points and George Walker added nine.

Season Impact: Oxy improves to 16-5 overall and 8-4 in SCIAC play.

CMS falls to 17-5 and 9-4.

Next Game: Oxy is back in action at Whittier on Saturday at 2 p.m.