Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

CLAREMONT, Calif. – The Whittier College men's basketball team's offense was held in check Tuesday evening as they had no answer for the Stags of Claremont-M-S who went on to win 90-57 at the Rains Center on the campus of Pomona-Pitzer.

CMS (10-3, 3-1 SCIAC) put up 52 points in the first half and remain in second place in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) standings, while Whittier drops to 8-5, 2-2 SCIAC remaining in fourth place in the standings.

The Poets fell behind early 13-0 until an Andrew Bucholtz (Lone Tree, CO) lay-up and a pair of free throws from Eric Jennings (Fontana, Calif.) would stop the bleeding at the 14:51 mark.  A 9-0 run by the Stags would increase the deficit to 29-8 before back to back three pointers from Louis Kurihara (Pacific Palisades, Calif.) would move the score to 31-14 with 7:14 to play.

Whittier would add another four points soon after but that's all they would gather in the first half as CMS would add a three pointer at the buzzer from Scott Lynds that pushed the score to 52-18 at the break.

In the second the Poets managed to outscore the Stags 39-38 led by Nick Demusis (Mililani, HI) who tossed in all 14 of his points in 12 minutes of action but saw a deficit become 48 with 10:45 to play, which proved to be too much to overcome.

Kurihara finished with a career high 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting, all coming from deep, while Andrew Torres (Whittier, Calif.) picked up 10 points in 25 minutes of action.  Bucholtz totaled 10 points for the game and blocked a shot, while Demusis and Jennings each had five rebounds apiece.

For Claremont-M-S, Jack Grodahl finished with a game high 23 points going 6-of-7 from three point territory.  Tyler Gaffaney picked up 20 points, nine rebounds, four assists, and two steals and Lynds finished with 12 points and four rebounds off the bench.

Whittier returns to the court this Saturday, January 17 when they host Pomona-Pitzer at 7:00pm.