LA VERNE, Calif. — Emily Myers took over late as the University of La Verne women's basketball defeated Occidental, 55-44, at Frantz Court on Monday night.

With the game on the line, Myers scored 10 straight points late in the second half to propel the Leopards to their third straight SCIAC win.

La Verne improves to 6-8 overall and 3-2 in SCIAC play while Oxy remains winless in the SCIAC at 0-3.

Myers finished with a game-high 22 points on 7-of-11 shooting while adding eight rebounds and three steals.

"We were saying on the bench, 'If we could clone Emily, that would be amazing' because of her work ethic in practice and in the games," La Verne head coach Julie Shaw said. "She's the one that led us this whole entire game whether she's cheering on the bench or sprinting to every possession on the court. … She was everywhere today."

The Leopards built up an early 12-point lead and seemed to have the game under control at the half, going into the break leading 27-17.

But the Tigers came out of the locker room with much higher defensive intensity and forced six backcourt turnovers, which directly led to eight fast break points.

In the blink of an eye, Occidental erased a double-digit deficit and grabbed a 33-31 lead after a steal and an easy layup by Ashton Reid.

But Jasmine Bush stopped the bleeding with a transition layup, Erika Rivera hit a huge three-pointer from the left wing and then Myers brought the Leopards home.

After the three by Rivera, Myers used her size and skills to dominate the Tigers inside. She hit a little hook, overpowered a defender with a dropstep and converted a putback to put the Leopards back up by double-digits with two minutes to go.

Rivera, who hit her first two three-pointers of the season against Whittier on Saturday, went 2-for-2 from beyond the arc for the second game in a row. She finished with six points and five rebounds.

La Verne did an excellent job locking down Oxy's Triana Anderson, who had averaged 12.7 points on 62.5 percent shooting in her last three games. The freshman was held to zero points and managed only one shot attempt.

Reid led Oxy with 18 points, seven rebounds and three steals off the bench.

The Leopards continue SCIAC action at first-place Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Saturday at 2 p.m. The Leopards dropped a narrow 65-62 decision to the Athenas on Dec. 3.

"We need to focus on us," said Shaw of team's preparation heading into the big match. "I think we're doing a lot of [damage] to ourselves so we just need to clean up our mistakes and fundamentals."