Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

WHITTIER, Calif. – The Whittier College Men's Basketball team unleashed a long- range assault on the Bulldogs of the University of Redlands Saturday afternoon as they rolled to the 97-77 victory in the Graham Athletic Center.

The win snaps a two game losing skid and moves Whittier back over .500 at 8-7, 4-3 SCIAC, while moving them into a three-way tie for third place in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) standings. 

Despite seeing Redlands pull within five midway through the second half, the Poets' defensive unit was able to stand strong late as they rolled to the 20-point victory. 

The game started as a quick back and forth battle.  Bulldog standout Al Bjekovic added the first points of the game with a lay-in, but Anthony Martinez (Cerritos, Calif.) would follow with a pair of free throws that tied the game up.

UR would get baskets from Kyle Milligan and Kyle Husslein soon after but the Bulldogs would find themselves in a tough situation covering sophomore Louis Kurihara (Pacific Palisades, Calif.) who went off with back to back three pointers, two of his game high five for the afternoon that gave the Purple & Gold an 8-6 lead.

Even with Kurihara lighting it up from long range, the Bulldogs still held an 18-15 lead with 13:50 to play in the first half.  But that lead would soon be short-lived as Whittier would respond with an 8-0 run, which included a Mike Jones-Mensah (Ghana, Africa) lay-up followed by back-to-back triples from Jacob Contreras (Pleasanton, Calif.) that moved WC back in front 23-18.

Blake O'Brien and Husslein would keep UR in the game with back-to-back buckets that cut the deficit to one but that's as close as the Bulldogs would get as Jones-Mensah would add another two right before Andrew Torres (Whittier, Calif.) heated up.  He would add a lay-up and a three-pointer that made the score 32-26 and would later put the finishing touches on the first half adding six of the final eight points for the Purple & Gold as they led 44-33 at the break.

Redlands came out fired up in the second half with Bjekovic fueling the offense in the first three minutes adding a lay-in and successfully completing a three-point play the old fashion way.  Joey Sponheim came in off the bench and added two three-pointers soon after and Husslein added one himself that cut the deficit to nine at the 14:30 mark. 

But the Poet lead was too much to overcome as they continued lighting up the hardwood expanding their lead in minutes.  Eric Jennings (Fontana, Calif.) proved why he is one of the top off guards in the conference adding two lay-ups, Martinez added a triple from dead center along with a lay-up and Contreras would add another three-pointer from the corner that expanded the Poet lead helping them come away with the huge home victory on Dave Jacobs Court.

Kurihara had his breakout game of his career finishing with 23 points on 5-of-8 shooting going 5-of-7 from deep, and a perfect 8-for-8 from the charity stripe.

Jennings picked up 17, had nine boards, four assists, and three steals. Torres had a double double with 16 points and 10 rebounds, that went with four assists, and three steals, while Martinez at the point had 14 points going 4-of-6 from the field.                         

Whittier wraps up their first round of conference play this Wednesday, January 27 when they travel to Caltech to take on the Beavers beginning at 7:30pm.