Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

WHITTIER, Calif. - The Whittier College men's basketball team lost its third game in as many tries on Tuesday evening as No. 19 Chapman University proved to be too strong with an 87-70 win at the Graham Athletics Center.

The Poets (4-3) got down early and couldn't recover. Chapman stormed out to a 19-5 lead over the first 6:30 of the game before Whittier called for its first timeout.

The Panthers (10-1) continued their hot hand from the field as their lead reached as many as 30 points with 3:07 left in the half and with five seconds left before the intermission.

Chapman led 53-23 at the break.

The Panthers shot 60 percent from the field and made good on 21-of-23 first half foul shots. The Poets only went to the line six times through the first 20 minutes of the game and made half of their attempts.

The second half faired better for the purple and gold. The Poets outscored the Panthers 47-34 but the first half deficit was too much to overcome.

Whittier got to the line 18 times in the second half and made 13 shots from the charity stripe while Chapman's foul shots dropped to only 11 second half attempts. A total of 51 fouls were called in the game and 58 foul shots were taken.

Damon Perry and Khalif Boyd each scored a team-high 16 points and Drew Menez reached double-figures with 13 points. Perry led the team with five rebounds.

Chapman outrebounded the Poets 36-25 for the game and scored 52 of its 87 points from inside the paint. Whittier's bench, which was held to just two points against North Park, scored 27 points; led by Boyd.

Whittier returns to action on Wednesday, December 30, as it travels to Davis, Calif., to face Division I UC Davis at 7:30 pm.