Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

PASADENA, Calif. – Following a convincing 79-64 win over La Verne last week, the Whittier College men's basketball team ran into a road bump Saturday evening falling to the Beavers of the California Institute of Technology on the road 92-77.

With the loss the Poets now drop to 12-8, 6-5 SCIAC and have now lost three of their last four but still remain in fourth place in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) standings, with their SCIAC Post Season Tournament playoff berth still intact.      

Just days after shaking off a 55-game losing streak by beating the University of Redlands, Caltech accomplished something that it had not done in 44 years – win two SCIAC games in one season dating back to the 1953-54 season, when they won three straight to claim the SCIAC Championship.  Caltech also recorded consecutive victories in SCIAC play as recently as 1960-61, although there was a non-conference loss between them. 

The Poets jumped out in front 14-6 just over five minutes into the game sparked by back to back to back triples from Louis Kurihara (Pacific Palisades, Calif.) and Nick Demusis (Mililani, HI).  Caltech cut it to a one possession game following a three pointer from Ricky Galliani but Whittier pushed the lead back to five 25-20 with 8:52 on the clock thanks to a David Richardson (Los Angeles, Calif.) jumper.     

That's when the flood gates opened for the Beavers who rattled off a 10-0 run in less than three minutes to go in front 30-25.  Eric Jennings (Fontana, Calif.) stopped the bleeding with a jumper that pulled the Poets within a basket and they pushed relentlessly hitting consecutive layups from Jennings and Demusis that pulled Whittier within a point 32-31.  A minute later CIT went back out in front by three following a three point play by Andrew Hogue, but Ben Maynard (Pasadena, Calif.) came up clutch knocking down a triple that tied things up with 2:58 to play.

Whittier looked to have brought the momentum back in their favor following that three point play but Caltech managed to close out the half on a 9-0 run.  Hogue banked in a deep three-pointer as the shot clock expired on the next possession to give the Beavers a lead they would never relinquish.  Nasser Al-Rayes added a layup on a quick spin move in the post and tipped in another with 33 seconds left, but Whittier did not hold the ball for the final shot and allowed the Beavers to counter in the final seconds, with Kc Emezie hitting the fast break layup to put Caltech up 43-34 at halftime.

Out of the half, the Beavers made it a 14 point game at 48-34 with 18:24 on the clock.  Soon after Galliani's knocked down two more three pointers that stretched the deficit to 21 with 14:51 to play.  The Poets trimmed the deficit back to 14 behind an 8-1 run but the Beavers answered with their own run of seven straight that put them back in front by 21.  Whittier made two final pushes, trimming the margin to 13 at 69-56 and then strung together eight consecutive points that brought the game back into single digits at the 4:35 mark.

But that's as close as the Poets would get as Galliani would knock down another tre that secured the 15-point victory for CIT.

Caltech outshot Whittier 52-38 percent from the field while hitting a season-high 11 three-pointers at a season-best 44-percent clip and posting a phenomenal +18 rebound margin.

Jennings finished with a team high 21 points on 7-of-13 shooting to go with five rebounds, four assists and a steal.  Demusis had 17 points and five boards and Andrew Torres (Whittier, Calif.) off the bench had 11 points, four rebounds, and four assists. 

Whittier looks to bounce back as they remain on the road this Tuesday, February 10 as they take on Chapman University beginning at 7:30pm.