Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

CLAREMONT, Calif. – The Whittier College men's basketball team is hanging on to the opportunity to be the No. 2 seed and host a first round SCIAC Post Season Tournament Game after falling to the Sagehens of Pomona-Pitzer 79-58 Saturday evening for the second time this season.

Whittier now drops to 17-7, 9-4 SCIAC, while Pomona-Pitzer improves to 14-9, 9-4 SCIAC.  With both teams having identical records, it all comes down to the final game that occurs on Tuesday evening, February 21. 

The Poets take on the Leopards of the University of La Verne starting at 7:30pm and Pomona-Pitzer takes on the Stags of Claremont-M-S.  The outcomes of these two games will determine the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds in the SCIAC Post Season Tournament.

The scenario is this, If Whittier AND Pomona-Pitzer both have the same SCIAC record (either both win or lose Tuesday), AND
Cal Lutheran defeats Occidental, AND
Caltech defeats Redlands, THEN the seedings will go:

#1 CMS, #2 P-P, #3 WC, #4 CLU

But with a Whittier win and a Pomona-Pitzer loss on Tuesday evening, the Poets will take the No. 2 seed and will host the Sagehens of Pomona-Pitzer at the Graham Athletic Center in the first round of the SCIAC Post Season Tournament.

The previous time these two teams met Whittier was on the losing end of a 66-57 loss that came down to the final minute of play.  This time around the Poets remained close throughout the first half but were unable to stop the three ball as Pomona-Pitzer shot an astounding 55% from behind the three point line, while shooting 46% from the field. 

Two players reached double figures for the Poets including Greg Preer who had a game high 16 points on 5-of-18 shooting, while Nathaniel Easterman chipped in with 11 points and six boards.

SCIAC leading scorer Drew Menez who has been averaging over 17 ppg was unable to get any bounces as he finished with 9 points on 4-of-12 shooting.

The Poet offense who has been averaging 86.5 ppg was held way below their average and was outrebounded on the glass by 15, which proved to be the difference late in the game because of the second chance opportunities. 

Despite forcing 20 turnovers and registering 32 points in the paint the Poets were unable to find any scoring or a spark off the bench as they mustered only eight points.

Pomona jumped out early to an 8-2 lead and never looked back as Whittier continued to play catch up throughout the game getting as close as two a couple times late in the first half, but that's as close as they would get as Pomona cruised to the 79-58 victory putting up 44 in the second half. 

The Purple & Gold look to put this game behind them as they begin preparing for the Leopards of the University of La Verne who come to the friendly confines of the Graham Athletic Center on Tuesday, February 21 beginning at 7:30pm with playoff seeding implications.  It's a must win for the Poets accompanied with a Pomona-Pitzer loss and they are hoping the Poet faithful will join in for one of or maybe even the biggest game of the year.