ORANGE — The Occidental College women's basketball team had the right game plan; they executed it to near perfection and were in a great spot to beat a very good Chapman squad on the road.
But one of the best players in the SCIAC came up with a big play and the Tigers fell to the Panthers 66-61 on the road on Saturday.
Oxy falls to 9-7 and 3-5 in SCIAC. Chapman improves to 12-4 and 6-1.
After the Tigers turned the ball over on a sideline inbounds play with 40 seconds left, SCIAC leading scorer Kimi Takaoka came off of a screen a swished a 3-pointer from the top of the key, putting the Panthers up 62-61 with 19 seconds left.
"This one definitely hurts because we played so well and had a great opportunity to win," Oxy head coach Anahit Aladzhanyan said. "The ball didn't bounce our way tonight, but we got better today. We just need to do a little better job taking care of the ball in late-game situations and we walk out of here with a different result."
Oxy had three turnovers in the last 2 minutes.
Elizabeth Messick scored on a drop-step from the low block, putting Oxy up 61-57 with 1:47 left in the game before the Tigers got sloppy with the ball and let the Panthers back in it.
Takaoka, who is averaging more than 21 points per game, scored a game-high 28 points and Sandra Gao added 15 points for the Panthers.
Messick led Oxy with 13 points and 11 rebounds and Crystal Goodwin added 12.
Oxy's strategy was to fight fire with fire against a Chapman team that's known for its full-court pressure. It was Oxy that was trapping and defending the ball aggressively in the backcourt for the first 30 minutes of the game.
"We knew going into the game that we wanted to try to make them handle as much pressure as they are used to dishing out," Aladzhanyan said.
Then the Tigers changed pace for the last 10 minutes, switching to a 2-3 zone.
Both strategies worked and the Tigers were in the right spots.
Haley Graham scored nine points and Brittni Walker added eight for Oxy. Alyssa Mort and Erin Matsumoto chipped in seven points each off of the bench.
The Tigers are back in action at La Verne at 7:30 on Jan. 23.