Occidental

[50's PONY]

Tigers set to host Division I Southern Methodist University


LOS ANGELES, Calif. (Dec. 16, 2009) – One week after facing the Division I Titans from Cal State University, Fullerton, the Occidental College Tigers will have their work cut out for them again when they host the Southern Methodist University Mustangs at 2:00 p.m. For those who will not be able to make it out to Rush Gymnasium, the game will be available live via video streaming through KADYtv.com with audio supplied by Craig Dunkin and crew.

Coming off a loss to CSUF, Occidental has used the week of finals to regroup and work on some areas they need improvement on. On the road, the Tigers were led by Deshun McCoy who scored 14 and led all players with nine rebounds. He is currently second on the squad with 16.4 points per game and 8.3 rebounds per game. Senior guard Huston Conit leads the offensive attack with 18.5 ppg while senior center Sean Anderson tops the pack with 8.9 rpg. Jack Hanley and Eric Leider also average better than 10 points per game with 14.4 and 12.1, respectively. Anderson has pitched in with 8.9 ppg to round out the starting five.

McCoy is shooting 66% from the field, while Hanley has been solid beyond the arc, shooting 73% from three-point range. Conti holds a team-leading free-throw percentage of 77%. Leider has paced the pack with 4.6 assists per game and 2.1 steals per game.

"Our games this year against San Diego and Fullerton have given our guys a great taste of Division I basketball,” said head coach Brian Newhall. “SMU will be another major challenge, but I am hopeful that we are more prepared for the tempo and athleticism that we will be up against."

SMU, a member of Conference USA, has been out of game-action since Dec. 7 when they defeated Texas State, 94-86, at Moody Coliseum to even their record at 3-3. The Mustangs have been led this season by Derek Williams who is averaging 15 points per game (45% FG, 75% FT), followed by Mouhammad Faye with 14.2 (31% FG, 30% 3FG). Williams is also second on the squad with 16 assists, behind Paul McCoy who has tallied 18.

The other two six-game starters for SMU, McCoy and Papa Dia, are averaging 10.3 (41% FG) and 10.2 ppg (52% FG, 87% FT), respectively. In six games, three starts, Justin Haynes has also been a threat, shooting 52% from the field. Look for Faye to shoot the three (8-for-27) and Robert Nyakundi is a three-point threat off the bench as well (5-for-10).

Faye and Dia are the Mustangs’ defensive leaders. While Dia averages a team-leading 7.7 rpg (with 23 offensive boards), with four blocks, Faye has a team-high 10 blocks, with 6.8 rpg as well. McCoy has also added nine steals, the most for the Mustangs, while Williams has seven.

Overall this season, the Mustangs are shooting 47% from the field as a team, but struggle from behind the three-point line (29%) and at the charity stripe (64%). They have pulled down 35.5 rpg and are out-rebounding their opponents by 6.3 rpg this season.

Occidental is shooting 51% from the field as a team with strong outside shooting as the Tigers have a 47% three-point percentage through the first seven games. At the line they have converted 71% of their free-throws. The Black and Orange have pulled down 38 rpg, with a +5.9 rebounding edge over their opponents.

The Tigers have a five-game winning streak at home on the line this weekend.

The last time that Occidental defeated a Division I program was back in 1944 when the Tigers came out victorious against the UCLA Bruins twice. The first, a 36-35 win, came on UCLA’s home court on Dec. 1, 1944 and again the Tigers defeated the Bruins 47-45 in a game played in La Encina early in 1945.[/u][/u]

[Oliver]

saw the team at LAX today and wished them luck, should be fun to see them in LA tomorrow. Will be kind of surreal for me as this will be the first road game of any sort i've been as a student.

[Charleston Pony]

let's just hope we come out strong and take care of this Division III school...easily. After all, this is supposed to be a warm up to get the guys ready for Hawaii after a long break.

[PonyDoh]

Survive and advance