LOS ANGELES — Makenzie Brandon (Seattle) scored a game-high 27 points and the Occidental College women's basketball team turned 26 turnovers into 22 points, beating Redlands 74-67 and taking control of first place in the SCIAC standings at Rush Gymnasium on Thursday night.
Oxy (4-2, 3-0 SCIAC) bumps previously undefeated Redlands (6-1, 2-1 SCIAC) into second and jumps a half-game ahead of Cal Lutheran, which did not play. It's the second game in a row that the Tigers have knocked off an undefeated opponent — Oxy won at Chapman, 68-59 on Dec. 1.
Brandon, the 2011-12 SCIAC Player of the Year, has been a thorn in Redlands' side and her latest performance against the Bulldogs was on par with a few memorable ones. The 5-foot-11 forward had seven rebounds, three assists and five of Oxy's 14 steals to go along with her big night scoring, in 37 minutes played. She's now averaging 28.7 points, six rebounds and 4.7 steals per game in her last three matchups with Redlands.
On Thursday, Brandon scored 17 points and was a perfect 9 for 9 from the free throw line to ice the game in the second half.
"I've been looking forward to this game since our first preseason game," Brandon said. "We knew it was going to be a fight. It is every year and tonight was no different. We knew we couldn't let up and I wasn't comfortable until the buzzer sounded."
After Oxy fell behind 19-9 early, Brandon had six points, a rebound, two assists and two steals during a 3-minute, 20 second stretch that tied the game at 21 with 7:08 left in the first half.
The Tigers opened the second half on a 10-0 run, with transition buckets from Marquisha Corley(Tucson, Ariz.), Liz Little (Littleton, Colo.) and Elizabeth Messick (Reno, Nev.) and free throws fromMichelle Naito-Lo (Monterey Park), but quickly conceded eight-straight points to let the Bulldogs back in the game.
Then Brandon started to heat up. She sunk a pair of free throws, picked off a pass and converted an and-one to give Oxy a seven-point edge, 43-36, with 14:57 on the clock.
With 2:12 left, She made two of her most crucial contributions with back-to-back offensive rebounds that kept an Oxy possession alive and set up Naito-Lo for a dagger three that put the Tigers up 67-60 with 1:43 left.
"A lot of different people made big plays down the stretch and we found a way to win," Brandon said.
Naito-Lo and Crystal Goodwin (Los Angeles) each hit two three-pointers in the second half to curb Redlands runs. The Bulldogs took a 48-47 lead on threes from Allison Wong and Ashley Sevilla, but Goodwin and Naito-Lo answered with two of their own, giving Oxy a 53-48 lead with 8:55 left.
The closest Redlands got was 64-60 before Naito-Lo hit her second three of the game.
"That was a huge shot when we really needed it," Occidental coach Anahit Aladzhanyan said. "We really needed a score and Michelle's shot really put us in a good position to win."
Goodwin finished with nine points on 3 for 6 shooting from beyond the arc. Messick had 14 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks despite missing 6 minutes of the first half with foul trouble.
Little, who came into the game ranked seventh in the conference in assists (2.8), had six and just two turnovers.
"The whole thing is just having experienced, mature players who really play one possession at a time," Aladzhanyan said. "They stay in the moment.
"You have Makenzie Brandon. You can't say enough about Makenzie who can just take over at any given time. We have a lot of pieces. Liz has a very high basketball IQ, (Messick) was dominant inside, you have (Naito-Lo) and (Goodwin) that can shoot the ball and (Corley's) defense can single-handedly change the game."
Redlands had four players in double figures. Sevilla had 15, Brittany Oster scored 14, Marika Staton had 13 and Wong finished with 11.
The game got physical and chippy on both sides. Oster and Naito-Lo both received technical fouls in the first half after getting tangled following a Naito-Lo reaching foul and then Messick got a technical for mixing it up with Oster with a 72-65 lead and 16 seconds left on the clock.
After three SCIAC games during the first semester, both teams will get a break from conference action until the New Year. Redlands plays next against Lewis & Clark on Saturday and Oxy faces them on Sunday. The Tigers don't play another SCIAC game until they meet up with Cal Lutheran in Thousand Oaks on Jan. 5.
"We have a few important non-conference games around the holiday break before we get back to SCIAC play," Aladzhanyan said. "It's important that we keep building on what we've put together so far so we're ready for Cal Lu and the rest of the SCIAC schedule come January."