Senior Nasser Al-Rayes (Doha, Qatar \/ American School of Doha) had a second straight career night as Caltech men’s basketball avenged its earlier 110 rivalry loss with a 60-53 victory at Occidental College on Thursday evening.
\nThe Beavers improve to 3-8 overall and start SCIAC play 2-0 for the second consecutive season, while the Tigers drop to 8-3, 0-2. The victory marks Caltech’s fourth in its last five games against Oxy over the past two years and maintains a share of the conference lead alongside Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pomona-Pitzer Colleges.<\/p>\n
Al-Rayes scored the first seven points for the Beavers as Oxy took a 12-7 lead before freshman Alec Andrews (Folsom, Calif. \/ Folsom) drilled a three to cut the Tigers lead to two and Al-Rayes followed on the next possession with a layup to tie the game at 14-14 with 8:05 on the clock. Al-Rayes would score 13 of Caltech’s first 18 points in the first half, combining well with senior David LeBaron (San Diego, Calif. \/ Francis Parker) in the post against the undersized Tigers. Sophomore Brent Cahill (Laguna Beach, Calif. \/ St. Margaret’s) then went coast-to-coast after a defensive rebound to stake Caltech to the lead after finishing an acrobatic layup with 4:35 remaining in the half.<\/p>\n
Oxy mustered two buckets in the waning minutes while Caltech went nearly four full minutes without a basket to move ahead, 20-18. LeBaron tied the gameon a hard-fought layup with roughly 40 seconds remaining in the half, but Oxy knocked down a baseline jumper with two seconds left on the clock to hold a two-point margin at the half.<\/p>\n
Caltech’s offense exploded to open the second half, which carried over to the defensive end as the Beavers held Oxy scoreless over the first 4:33 while rattling off 12 unanswered points without missing a single shot. Al-Rayes kicked things off with a dagger three-pointer to regain the lead, then combined with senior Ricky Galliani (Menlo Park, Calif. \/ Sacred Heart Prep) on the next nine points for the 32-22 lead, forcing Oxy to take an early timeout. Over the next 10 minutes, Oxy steadily clawed back into the contest while Al-Rayes went to the bench with four fouls. A put-back tied the game at 39-39 with 6:11 remaining, prompting Head Coach Dr. Oliver Eslinger to send Al-Rayes back onto the floor just as Cahill converted a layup and drew a foul, then sank the ensuing free throw to complete the go-ahead three-point play. On the next two possessions, Al-Rayes and Galliani knocked down back-to-back three-pointers to move back ahead by seven and LeBaron rounded out the clutch senior trio with a put-back to hold the margin at 50-43 with 3:17 left to play. Oxy would pull back within a basket as First Team All-SCIAC forward Andrew Johnson muscled his way to the basket on consecutive possessions, but a pair of jumpers by Andrews kept Caltech in front and Cahill hit both free throws once Oxy resorted to fouling with 37 seconds remaining to seal the game.<\/p>\n
Just two days after scoring a career-high 24 in a double-double, Al-Rayes just missed another with nine rebounds and two assists as he went 9-for-12 from the field, 3-for-3 beyond the arc and 4-for-5 at the line. Galliani finished with nine points and four rebounds while LeBaron contributed a full stat line of eight points, eight rebounds and six assists. Cahill added seven points, five boards and three assists off the bench.<\/p>\n
Eslinger and the Beaverswill have an opportunity to claim sole possession of first place in the SCIAC as they square off at CMS (9-1, 2-0) on Saturday, Jan. 7 for a 7 p.m. game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Senior Nasser Al-Rayes (Doha, Qatar \/ American School of Doha) had a second straight career night as Caltech men’s basketball avenged its earlier 110 rivalry loss with a 60-53 victory at Occidental College on Thursday evening. The Beavers improve to 3-8 overall and start SCIAC play 2-0 for the second consecutive season, while the Tigers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[116,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-boysbasketball","category-topstories"],"yoast_head":"\n