Again knocking on the doors of history, the Caltech men’s basketball team suffered another heartbreaking loss at home in overtime to La Verne 80-74.

The two teams traded field goals in the first three minutes of overtime until Caltech had a string of five empty possessions while La Verne was able to get to the free throw line and take advantage of the double bonus. The calmly sank their final freethrows to clinch the game, making all eight from the charity line in OT. This marks Caltech’s second loss in overtime in SCIAC Conference play this season and leaves the Beavers still seeking their first conference win in over 20 years.

In the first half, junior forward Travis Haussler put the Beavers up by nine with 12 minutes left in the first half with a three. Unperturbed, La Verne came back with an even stronger run and kept Caltech to three points in seven minutes while scoring 20 points of their own. Despite being behind eight points, Caltech quickly recouped and was able to remain within striking range ending the half down 38-37.

La Verne came out strong in the second half and quickly extended their lead to eight. The Beavers just kept chipping away at the deficit until a layup by senior forward Bryan Hires with a little more than three minutes to go cut the lead to 66-64.

This basket marked Hires’ 1000th career point, which is quite a milestone to achieve. “Well, I didn’t realize it until after the game. At the time, I was focusing completely on the game and we were so close,” said Hires. Upon learning of his great achievement, Hires reflected on his career, “It had taken four years of hard work and I couldn’t have done it without a bunch of great teammates.”

Hires picked up his fifth foul three minutes into overtime, however, and had to watch from the sidelines again as the team floundered.

There were certainly opportunities for Caltech to avoid overtime, a disadvantage for the exhausted Beavers - four players for Caltech played more than 40 minutes. Junior guard Matt Dellatorre was fouled with 36 seconds left in regulation and Caltech down by one. However, Dellatorre only converted 1-of-2 to tie the game.

Both Huassler and Hires had terrific scoring games, contributing 30 and 28 points respectively. Dellatorre played all 45 minutes of the game and made himself a well-felt presence on the court. On La Verne’s end, Juan Canas had a team-high 24 points.