Box Score Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
WHITTIER, Calif. – The Whittier College Men's Basketball team continues to roll as they won their second consecutive game over West Coast Baptist 89-65 in the Graham Athletic Center Friday night moving back to .500.
Last week the Poets took out the Eagles 111-79 and are now 12-1 in the head-to-head match-up.
It was a slow start for the Purple & Gold as they saw a deadlocked tie at 13-13 in the first eight minutes. But an ensuing 11-2 run for Whittier with six coming from junior transfer Mike Jones-Mensah (Ghana, Africa) would extend their lead to 24-15 and freshman Jake Moore (Dallas, TX) would put the finishing touches on an impressive first half with back to back triples.
In the final 1:46 the Poets' Eric Jennings (Fontana, Calif.) and freshman Chris Kapano (Los Alamitos, Calif.) would go off putting together their own run of nine straight that pushed the lead to twenty 41-21 at intermission.
Whittier didn't stop there in the second half pushing the lead to 31 midway through the frame with nine coming from Moore, a 9-1 run, which included three triples from Jacob Contreras (Pleasanton, Calif.), Ben Maynard (Pasadena, Calif.), and Moore, capped off with a baseline jam from Jacob Aruta (Stockton, Calif.) that brought the Poet faithful to their feet.
Despite the presence of the 6-6, 250 pound Imaan Vicente, who had a game high 23 points and 12 boards inside, Whittier was still able to outrebound the Eagles 47-38, hold the edge with points in the paint at 28-20, and with 2nd chance points at 16-8.
14 players saw action for the game with four reaching double figures. Moore finished with 17 on 6-of-12 shooting going 4-of-8 from deep, Jennings tossed in 16 points coupled with seven rebounds,Maynardlit it up from deep going 3-of-9 for 12 points to go with five rebounds, and Jones-Mensah finished with 11 points and four boards.
Whittier hits the road for two games in two weeks when they travel to UC Santa Cruz on December 20-21 when they take part in the Mission Inn Holiday Classic when they will take on UC Santa Cruz (7:00pm) and Puget Sound (3:00pm).
