Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The Whittier College Men's Basketball team clinched the No. 2 seed in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Post Season Tournament Saturday despite falling to Occidental College 81-80.

Whittier dropped their second game to the Tigers this season and drop to 14-10, 9-6 SCIAC but hold firmly onto the No. 2 seeding in the SCIAC rankings making this the fifth trip to the Post-Season Tournament for Head Coach Rock Carter. 

The Purple & Gold held a two point lead with four seconds left on the clock but Jay Miller from Oxy would come down and knock down a jumper from the baseline that tied the game, while getting fouled before converting the free throw that propelled the Tigers to the one point victory in Rush Gymnasium. 

It was a back and forth battle in the first half until Oxy would extend a lead to seven following four unanswered.  But Whittier would storm back with a 6-2 run of two Eric Jennings (Fontana, Calif.) lay-ups and a lay-in from Anthony Martinez (Cerritos, Calif.) that cut the deficit to three (39-36) at the break.

The Tigers maintained their offense early in the second maintaining a slight advantage but at the 18:02 mark Whittier would rally with a 14-2 run to take a lead 53-46.  Martinez started the run with a lay-up and was followed by back-to-back triples from Ben Maynard (Pasadena, Calif.) and Jennings.  Martinez then put the finishing touches on it with the last six points including two free throws and two layups.

But on the ensuing four possessions for Oxy they would claw back to regain the lead at 55-53.

Andrew Torres (Whittier, Calif.) ended the run with two free throws that tied the game up at 55-55 and Jennings and Richard Kaye (Irvine, Calif.) shortly after would add lay-ups that again put WC in front. 

The game would become tied four more times in the last 8:30 and the lead changed on four different occasions as well.  Austin Dewitz made a lay-up that put Oxy in front 76-74 with 2:37 to play.  But over the next minute Whittier would outscore the Tigers 6-2 with two free throws from Martinez and a jumper and layup from Torres. 

This would give Whittier an 80-78 lead with :48 seconds left.  After a big stop by the Poets on the defensive end, Torres would get fouled and would get an opportunity to ice the game.  But he would miss the front end of the one and one allowing Occidental to come down for the game-winning three-point play.      

Jennings led the Purple & Gold with 23 points on 7-of-12 shooting with five rebounds and five assists.  Martinez had 18 and Torres rounded out the double digit scorers with 15 going 6-of-7 from the field with nine boards and four steals.    

Whittier returns to the court for their home finale, senior night and PAC the GAC tonight, February 23 beginning at 5:00pm. 

The SCIAC Post Season Tournament will get underway with the semi-finals this Friday, February 26 with tip-off set for 7:30pm in the Graham Athletic Center.  Opponent yet to be determined.