WHITTIER, Calif. - The Whittier College men's basketball team had its season end by way of the three-pointer as No. 3 Pomona-Pitzer connected on 15-of-31 three's en route to a 92-76 upset of the second-seeded Poets at the Graham Athletic Center on Friday night in the semifinals of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament.

Whittier (16-10) had little answer for Pomona's David Liss who seized momentum of the game from the get go as he hit a three-pointer on his first shot of the evening. Liss finished the contest with a game-high 27 points on 9-of-18 shooting which includes a 5-of-10 effort from behind the arc.

The Poets got down early as they were held scoreless over the first two and a half minutes of the game before David Hayashi made the score 7-3 with three of his nine points on the evening.

The Sagehens (14-12) built its first half lead to as many as 14 points with four minutes left in the half but Jeremy Namkung hit an off balanced three in the waning seconds of the half to give Pomona the 47-32 lead at the break.

The Hens continued their sharp shooting in the second half as they stretched their lead to 19 points with 12:38 to go in the game. The purple and gold clawed their way back into the game as they went on a 23-6 run over the next 6:30 to cut the Pitzer lead to 69-65.

During the Poets' run Marcus Gibson scored seven of his 14 points which includes a pair of three-pointers. Travis Crow match Gibson's effort from behind the arc as he knocked down a pair of long-range jumpers with his second coming in transition off an assist by Kenneth Albritton to make the score 69-63.

Jeff McLean finished the Poet run with an offensive rebound and put back to put the purple and gold within four of the Sagehens with 6:13 left in the game.

That would prove to be as close as Whittier would get as the Hens closed the game on a 23-11 run.

Crow finished the game with a team-high 15 points in his final game as a Poet. Archuletta ended his Whittier career with a 12-point, six-rebound evening while fellow seniors Gibson, McLean and Keegan Hoover poured in 14, nine and six points each, respectively.

For the game the Saghens shot over 50 percent from the field and pulled in 39 rebounds to Whittier's 30. The Poets shot a respectable 45 percent from the floor which includes going 11-of-24 from behind the arc.

Pomona-Pitzer advances to take on the top seed in the SCIAC tournament, Claremont-Mud-Scripps, on Saturday evening as the winner will earn the automatic bid into the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament.