LOS ANGELES – Sophomore Austin Stueck scored 29 points to lead the MSOE men's basketball team to an 84-82 victory over Occidental Monday evening at Rush Gymnasium.

The Raiders (9-2) have now won six-straight games and knocked off the Tigers (5-4) to post a perfect 2-0 record on their two-game trip to California.

MSOE prevailed in a nail-biter down the stretch. Stueck gave his team the lead for good at 81-79 with 2:57 to go, but the game was far from over. The Red and White would build its late lead as high as three and as late as 46 seconds remaining, but it could not shake Occidental.

The Tigers hit the first of two free throws with 29 seconds remaining, missed the second, got the rebound and called timeout. This set up one last possession for the home team. Kris Montoya let fly the first of two potential game-winning three's at the five-second mark. Juwan Rice got the rebound and gave Montoya a second try that was off the mark at the buzzer.

Stueck was 11-of-16 from the field as he just missed his second 30-point outing in two weeks. He added eight rebounds, three steals and two blocks for MSOE. Sophomore Connor Patterson finished with 12 points and eight boards, while junior Jeremiah Erdmann scored 10 points.

Andrew Johnson scored 23 points and had nine rebounds for Occidental. He was joined in double-figures by Spencer Levy with 18 and Montoya and Rice with 11 apiece.

The Raiders erased a double-digit deficit in less than two minutes to take a 40-39 lead into halftime. They trailed the Tigers 32-20 before rattling off 12-straight points with some stingy defense to take the lead. The home team had just one shot attempt during the stretch, which was blocked.

After a pair of Patterson free throws with just under two minutes to go before intermission, sophomore Brent Radlinger came up with a steal that led to two Stueck free throws. The Red and White forced a turnover, leading to a big sequence by Stueck. He hit a jumper, got a steal that led to a Radlinger layup and then blocked a shot that turned into two more Patterson free throws. Freshman Collin Seubert had a steal on Occidental's next possession and Stueck hit a layup with two seconds to go to give the Raiders the lead.

In the second half, MSOE used another sizable run to pull away from the home team. The score was tied at 44-44 at 18:37 before a Seubert three-pointer kick-started a 13-0 run to make it 57-44 at 14:59. The Tigers did not go away, whittling away at the Raider advantage to tie the game once again at 77-77 with just over four minutes remaining

The Raiders shot over 50 percent for the sixth time in 11 games this season, finishing at 50.8 percent.

MSOE returns to action back in Wisconsin and back in conference play Saturday, hosting Concordia Chicago at the Kern Center. Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m.