Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The Whittier College women's basketball team dropped their second straight game and six of their last seven as they fell 76-43 Saturday evening to the Tigers of Occidental College dropping their record to 5-13, 2-7 SCIAC.

With the win Occidental improves to 10-5, 6-1 SCIAC, while Whittier drops their sixth game this season by twenty or more points. 

Behind a game and season high 19 points on 6-21 shooting, while hauling in a game high 12 rebounds, recording three steals and two blocks, senior transfer Casceal Swaggard led the way for the Purple & Gold in her breakout performance of the season despite being the lone Poet in double figures.  Alex Coon was a point away from recording yet another double digit scoring effort as she finished with nine points on 3-9 shooting but the next closest player was Maria Montero off the bench who chipped in with four points.

Whittier knotted the game up at 11-11 at the 8:51 mark but that's as close as they would get as the Tigers would rattle off ten unanswered to take a 20-11 lead and then add a 12-0 run a minute later to extend their lead to 32-13, ultimately leading to a 37-19 halftime advantage.

Coming out in the second half, Swaggard replied with back to back jumpers to cut the deficit to fourteen but Oxy replied with an 8-0 run that again put them back up twenty.  Despite holding the Tigers from adding any late runs, the Poets were unable to compete with the height inside as they dropped the battle of the boards 53-38, while allowing 42 points in the paint. 

The largest lead held by Occidental was 34, while the bench scoring was in the Tigers favor at 41-9.  For Occidental, two players recorded double figures including Makenzie Brandon and Elizabeth Messick who each recorded 15 and 10 points, each respectively. 

Whittier returns to action next Saturday, January 26 when they return home to host Claremont-M-S beginning at 5:00pm.