Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

WHITTIER, Calif. - The Whittier College men's basketball team outscored Occidental 28-18 in the paint, held a 20-12 advantage in points off turnovers and forced 17 Tiger miscues but it wasn't enough as the Poets dropped their second game of the season to their SCIAC rival, 70-64, on Wednesday evening.

Whittier (8-10, 2-6 SCIAC) was just 3-of-18 on three-pointers and shot 37 percent from the floor for the game while the Tigers hit 50 percent of their long range jumpers and finished the contest at 45 percent from the court.

Jonathan Saucedo connected on only two buckets for the evening, both from the beyond the arc, and capped a 14-7 Whittier run with his second long ball of the game to cut the Tiger lead to 64-61 with 3:23 remaining.

Saucedo began the purple and gold burst with a three-pointer, cutting a 10-point Occidental lead to 57-50 at the 8:22 mark.

Occidental (14-5, 6-2 SCIAC) answered Whittier with six consecutive made foul shots to push their lead to 70-61 with 21 seconds left.

WC was held to just one make from the floor over the final three minutes of the game.

Drew Menez scored a game-high 21 points on 8-of-18 shooting while David Hayashi chipped in with 15 points on a mere 4-of-15 effort.

DaMon Perry led the game with 11 boards.

The Poets were held scoreless over the first four minutes of the game and dug themselves into an early 8-0 deficit. Hayashi ended the drought with his lone three of the game to get the purple and gold on the board.

The Tigers led by as many as 10 points in the first half and took a 30-26 advantage into the intermission.

The second half Occidental lead never exceeded 10 points.

Whittier returns to action on Saturday evening as it hosts Pomona-Pitzer at 7:30 pm.