The University of La Verne women's basketball team saved its best for last, and as a result now stand alone atop the SCIAC standings.
The Leopards trailed Occidental nearly the entire game, taking the lead only in the final minute of the action by scoring the game's final six points to close out the Tigers 65-60 Thursday at Frantz Athletic Court.
The win gives La Verne (14-3, 6-1) sole possession of first place in the SCIAC standings as they lead by a game over Occidental and Redlands to conclude the first round of league play.
La Verne grabbed its first lead of the game on a pair of free throws by Emily Carrillo to go ahead 61-60 with 57 seconds remaining. Oxy's Brianne Brown missed a jumper on the ensuing possession and the Leopards' Ashley Paul found a streaking Clarissa Holz for a layup to take a three-point lead of 63-60 with 38 seconds left. The Tigers missed two game-tying three-point tries by Brown and Dior Williams, as Emily Carrillo would seal the win with two free throws with three seconds remaining.
The Leopards flirted with the lead on several occassions but could not break through as the Tigers held firm through the first 39 minutes of action. Occidental (13-5, 5-2) led by as many as seven points in the first half on its way to a 32-27 advantage at intermission. La Verne pulled within one at 40-39 before the Tigers reeled off seven straight points to take their largest lead of the game at 47-39 with 9:40 remaining.
La Verne narrowed the gap and eventually knotted the game at 55-55 with 3:41 left to play. Down 59-56, Tedra Clark connected on her only three-pointer of the game to produce the seventh deadlock of the contest at 59-59 with 1:30 remaining. Stephanie Babij made one of two free throws at the 1:09 mark to give Oxy its final lead of the game at 60-59.
Carrillo was the offensive catalyst for the Leopards as she scored 16 second half points to finish with a game-high 24 to go along with a team-high 10 rebounds. She went 7-14 from the field and connected on 10 of her 12 free throw attempts. Ashley Paul contributed 14 points while freshman Clarissa Holz recorded 10 points and 7 rebounds for the Leopards.
Overall, the Leos made 50% (22-44) of their field goal attempts compared to a 44.2% clip (23-52) for the Tigers. Though Occidental finished 88.9% (10-11) from the free throw line, La Verne had more than twice as many attempts from the charity stripe and made 73.1% (19-26) of its shots.
Brown led Occidental in scoring with 16 points while Babij finished with a double-double of 15 points and 11 rebounds.
La Verne begins the second round of conference play Saturday as they take on Pomona-Pitzer in the first game of a men's-women's doubleheader. Tip-off is 5 pm.
