Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – It wasn't the ending the Whittier men's basketball team hoped for as Cal Lutheran knocked off the Poets, 84-76, Tuesday night to advance to the SCIAC postseason tournament as the fourth seed.

Two years ago the Poets clinched the second seed in the conference tournament with a last second win in Thousand Oaks but in tonight's regular season finale they couldn't find the similar magic.

Whittier (12-13, 7-7 SCIAC), which defeated the Kingsmen 78-59 on January 26, lost its final two games to finish one-game shy of the final playoff spot.

The game went back and forth through the early going and Whittier opened up a 26-21 lead at the 6:57 mark after Paul Davis knocked down a pair of free throws and Greg Preer converted a layup. The five-point lead was short lived as the Kingsmen went on a 9-0 run to go up 30-26 and take an eventual 38-33 advantage into the intermission.

The Cal Lutheran halftime lead was aided by Greg Grimm 3-pointer with 1:06 left, the final bucket of the first stanza.

The Poets found themselves down 49-43 with 14:23 left in regulation but scored seven unanswered points to reclaim the lead at 50-49. The lead quickly vanished as CLU scored on its ensuing possession. The Kingsmen never trailed again.

Cal Lutheran led by as many as 13 points with two minutes left in the game. The Poets made it a seven-point game with 1:13 left and again got as close as seven points with 22 seconds remaining.

Willie Mebane scored a team-high 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting to lead the Poets. Davis added 16 points off the bench while Greg Preer scored 13 points.

Damon Perry scored seven points and had six rebounds in his final game with the Poets. Fellow senior Ricky Kamayatsu was held without a point in nine minutes of action.

Whittier shot 44 percent from the floor but had troubling dealing with Cal Lutheran's 60 percent effort. The Kingsmen had a 39-30 advantage on the glass.