Box Score Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
ORANGE, Calif. – The Whittier College men's basketball team opened up their Holiday break with a 91-77 loss to Chapman University Monday evening dropping to 3-4, 0-2 SCIAC.
Coming off of 10 days of no competition, Whittier had no answer for the Panthers Taylor Hamasaki and Colin Zavrsnick who lit up the scoreboard with 23 and 21 points, each respectively combining to shoot 7-10 from three point territory.
But the tale of the tape was rebounding and second chance opportunities where the Panthers held an advantage 33-19, which played a role in them breaking an 11-11 tie early and going on an ensuing 30-8 run that lasted under ten minutes giving Chapman a 57-33 lead at the half.
In the first half, Hamasaki was 5-for-5 from deep scoring 15 of his team high 23 points with three assists and two blocked shots helping the Panthers shoot 69.7% from the field including 80% from three point range.
Whittier came out hot in the second half outscoring the Panthers 44-34 led by senior Chris Barnes-Williams (Salt Lake City, UT) who tossed in 17 of his game high 25 points going 6-10 from the field with two coming from deep. He was joined by Nick Demusis (Miliani, HI) who contributed 13 of his 17 points on the evening.
The Poets trailed by as many as 28 points with 13:12 to play but made a final push to pull within 14 but that's as close as they would get as they fell 91-77 after shooting a season high 54% from the field.
Sophomore Eric Jennings (Fontana, Calif.) was the third Poet to tally double figures with 14 points on 4-8 shooting going 4-6 from three point range. While David Richardson (Los Angeles, Calif.) totaled nine points on 4-5 shooting to go with three rebounds, four assists, a steal and two blocks.
Whittier returns to the court for the 42nd Annual Purple & Gold Poet Classic set to take place December 28-30. They open the classic on Saturday, December 28 against CSU Maritime beginning at 7:00pm and wrap up the tournament against Pacifica College on Monday, December 30 at 7:00pm.
