First SCIAC win for men comes at Occidental's expense

ORANGE, Calif. – The Chapman University men's basketball team led from start to finish as it defeated visiting Occidental College 69-59 in its first-ever home SCIAC game at the Hutton Sports Center on Saturday night. Four Panthers scored in double figures to help snap their brief two-game skid and earn their first conference victory.

The win was Chapman's fifth in a row on its home floor dating back to last season.

Senior C Colin Chadwick started the scoring with a basket and Chapman (2-2 overall, 1-1 SCIAC) opened the game on a 10-3 run to build a lead it would not relinquish. Chadwick earned his first career double-double with 12 points and matched his career-high with 14 rebounds.

From there, the Panthers pushed their lead to 22-11 with 11:50 remaining in the first half on a layup by sophomore F Justin Young and maintained a double-digit advantage throughout most of the game's duration. Chapman still led by 11 points at halftime, 38-27.

A bucket from sophomore G Jordan Young with 12:25 to go in the second half gave Chapman its biggest lead of the game at 49-33.

The Panthers still led by 16 when Occidental (2-3 overall, 0-2 SCIAC) made a charge. The Tigers went on a 12-4 run, capped by a three-pointer by freshman G Sebastian Ohara-Saft to trail by eight points at 63-55 with 4:40 left in the game. But that was as close as the Tigers would get as Chapman scored the next six points to extend its lead to 14.

Besides Chadwick, sophomore G Colin Zavrsnick (13 points), junior F Nick Dragovich (13 points) and Jordan Young (10 points) each finished with double figure points. Senior F Takeshi Clifford added eight points and six assists.

Junior F Kris Montoya also earned a double-double with a game-high 19 points and 10 rebounds for Occidental. Montoya was 11 of 15 from the free throw line. Chapman held the Tigers to just 35.8 percent (19-for-53) from the floor.

The Panthers travel to Whittier College on Wednesday to take on the Poets in SCIAC play at 7:30 p.m. and return home for a non-conference game against Vanguard University on next Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

by Doug Aiken
Sports Information Director

Boxscore: http://www.chapmanathletics.com/sports/mbkb/2012-13/boxscores/20121201_tq5a.xml

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