Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

LA VERNE, Calif. – The Whittier College men's basketball team escaped with a victory over the Leopards of the University of La Verne Wednesday evening 81-71 to win their third straight moving their road record to 5-2.

Whittier now improves to 11-4, 3-1 SCIAC, while La Verne drops to 4-11, 1-3 SCIAC.

The Poets who have won three straight SCIAC contests over Cal Lutheran, Occidental, and now La Verne are 7-1 in their past eight games and are on course to posting one of the best records in Whittier history, dating back to the coaching days of Hall of Famer Dave Jacobs.    

Since the 1993-94 season the Poets have posted three winning seasons in 2002-03 where they posted a 17-8, 7-7 SCIAC record, in 2007-08 with a 14-11, 7-7 SCIAC record and then again in 2008-09 where they finished 16-10, 10-4 in SCIAC.

This evening the Purple & Gold got the best of the Leopards of La Verne who pushed the Stags of Claremont-M-S to the brink in an overtime thriller a few nights ago falling in overtime to the SCIAC leaders.

Despite being outscored in the second half 40-37, the Poets still shot 48% from the field and 39% from behind the three point line.  Five Poets reached double figures including sophomore Tyree Landrum and freshman Jacob Porter who came off the bench to combine for 21 points on 9-of-11 shooting.  Landrum finished with 10, while Porter again poured out 11.

Point guard and senior transfer Kelly Johnson had his break out game of the season as he led the Poets in scoring with 14 on 4-of-7 shooting, while grabbing five boards and dishing out five assists.  Down the stretch he took control of the game and made sure to keep the ball in his hands in order to preserve the 10 point win. 

Senior and SCIAC leading scorer Drew Menez was held in check in tonight's contest as he was held to 13 points six points below his average, while fellow senior Nathaniel Easterman was also held to 12 points five points below his average. 

Despite the low point totals Whittier was able to pull out the win thanks to a lot of pressure put on the ballhandlers of La Verne due to the suffocating trap and press put on by the Poets.  They forced 24 turnovers and totaled 19 points off of those turnovers, which proved to be the difference down the stretch.

From the bench Whittier outscored the Leos 33-14 and that played big dividends late in the game allowing the Poets to continually sub in players with fresh legs. 

In the first half La Verne jumped out to a 7-0 lead behind Tyler Hoyt who finished with 12 points but it was short lived as the Poets came roaring back to tie the game up at 15-15 at the 14:22 mark behind jumpers from Porter.  That sparked an 8-0 run by the Poets, which helped them grab their first lead of the contest 23-19.  From here the Poets maintained that lead and never looked back as they continually added points extending their lead to 10 at 35-25 and eventually taking a 13 point lead into the break.

Coming out of halftime, Whittier extended their lead to 18 thanks to a 7-0 run starting at the 8:20 mark capped off by a big dunk by the 6'7 sophomore Landrum.  This was the largest lead of the game but it would soon be taken away as the Leopards began chipping away at the lead getting as close as four at 69-65 with just under two minutes remaining thanks to a 9-1 run led by Trevor Woodland who had a game high 18 points on 8-of-16 shooting.

But these four points would be as close as the Leos would get as the Poets sank 6-of-8 free throws and grabbed a final steal to seal the ten point victory. 

Up next for the Poets come the Stags of Claremont-M-S who bring into the Graham Athletic Center a 15-0 and 4-0 SCIAC record.  This game is set for this Saturday, January 21 at Whittier College beginning at 7pm immediately following the women's game taking place at 5pm. 

The Poets look to become the spoilers early in SCIAC play and are poised for an upset as they look to improve to 12-4 on the season, while continuing their three game winning streak.