CLAREMONT — Makenzie Brandon (Seattle, Wash.) scored all 19 of her points in the second half or overtime, Liz Little (Little, Colo.) buried four three-pointers and the Occidental College women's basketball team needed two key offensive rebounds and an extra 5 minutes to beat Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 71-65 at Ducey Gymnasium on Thursday.
With the score tied at 65, and 1:20 left in OT, Brandon grabbed the biggest of her 10 rebounds and finished the put-back, giving Oxy a 67-65 edge. On Oxy's next trip down the court, following a key defensive stop, Elizabeth Messick (Reno, Nev.) fought for another offensive board and had the presence of mind to kick the ball back out, wasting more time, with the shot clock turned off. Oxy burned 6 additional seconds, with four passes, before Marquisha Corley (Tucson, Ariz.) was fouled with 19.3 remaining.
Corley, who had hit two free throws already in OT to tie the game with 2:15 to go, swished both, giving Oxy a two-possession lead and its closest conference road win of the season.
"Every time it felt like we were going to take control, they battled back and made it interesting," Occidental coach Anahit Aladzhanyan said. "(Brandon) and (Messick's) offensive rebounds were clutch in that last little bit of OT."
CMS stayed in the game and even took the lead twice in the second half and OT with perfect three-point shooting. The Athenas went 9 for 9 from downtown in the game— seven of them in the second half.
Kyra Ray hit four, Aria Krumwiede made three, Madeline Barnes hit one and Cameron Ruby made maybe the biggest, cutting Oxy's lead to 59-56, with 2 minutes left. Then an Oxy offensive foul, two fouls in the bonus that resulted in three CMS made free throws, and a turnover gave the Athenas the ball and a chance to knock off the five-time defending SCIAC champs. But Messick andKatelyn Rowe (Carlsbad) blocked Krumwiede on two consecutive drives to her right to send the game into OT.
"We really showed a lot of fight when things weren't necessarily going well for us by making a stand defensively," Aladzhanyan said.
The score was even, 25-25, at half with Brandon on the bench for 14 minutes with her first career donut hole in a period and a pair of fouls. In the second, she slowly picked apart what had been a great defensive strategy against her by scoring in transition, getting to the foul line and hitting the offensive glass.
Little, who finished with 16 points on 6-for-14 shooting and 4 for 11 from three, had seven points to lead the Tigers in the first half. In the second, she hit three, threes, making it at least a two-possession game with each bucket. She hit at the 12-minute mark to put Oxy up four, 3 minutes later to go up seven and again with 3:45 left to put Oxy up 57-52.
Messick finished with 11 rebounds and eight points. Michelle Naito-Lo added 10 points and three assists. Rowe had 10 rebounds and three blocks off of the bench.
Krumwiede had a team-high 19 for the Athenas, Ray finished with 18 and Barnes had 10.
Oxy now sits in second, a game ahead of Chapman, La Verne and Redlands in the loss column and a game behind Cal Lutheran. The Tigers travel to play Redlands on Saturday at 5 p.m.
"You have to win close games on the road if you want to be in the top four come SCIAC tournament time," Aladzhanyan said. "We were able to do that tonight and that's most likely what we'll have to do Saturday if we want to beat another good team."