Babij, Conti sweep SCIAC Athlete of the Week honors

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (Jan. 18, 2009) – Announced today, Occidental College basketball players Stephanie Babij and Huston Conti swept the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Athlete of the Week honors for women’s and men’s basketball, respectively.

Babij, a junior forward from Ontario, Ore. averaged a double-double last week as the Tigers opened up SCIAC play with a 1-1 record. She posted a 24 point-11 rebound effort in Thursday's conference opener as the Tigers came back from a 28-36 deficit to defeat PP, 62-53. She added a pair of assists and steals and was credited with a block in the game. In the Saturday home opener for Oxy, she put up 10 points with 12 rebounds, four assists and a steal as the Tigers fell 78-72 in a close battle with Whittier. Overall she averaged 17 points per game and 11.5 rebounds per game as she finished with five offensive boards.

For the men, Conti led the Tigers to another 2-0 week as he averaged 18 points per game and 6.5 rebounds per game while dishing out nine assists and coming away with three steals. Against Emerson College in the final non-conference game of the Tigers' 2009-10 schedule he posted a game-high 22 points, going 4-for-7 from long range and 7-for-8 from the free-throw line. A native of Seattle, Wash., Conti added a game-best six assists in the contest as well. In the Tigers' SCIAC opener, he recorded a 14-point, 11-rebound double-double to push the Tigers past the Poets from Whittier College with a 71-57 victory. The senior guard added three more assists to his weekly total.