Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

WHITTIER, Calif. - The Whittier College Men's Basketball team ended their non-conference schedule Tuesday night as they squeaked by UC Santa Cruz 74-67 inside of the Graham Athletic Center.  

The Purple & Gold end their non-conference slate for 2019-20 at 5-4, while improving to 7-4, 2-0 SCIAC.  Whittier has been red hot as of late going 4-1 in the month of December and winning five of their last six.

They needed a big second half push to beat the Banana Slugs outscoring them 41-32 across the final 20:00 minutes, erasing a two-point halftime deficit. The game also saw 10 ties and 19 lead changes.

A trio of players recorded double digit scoring efforts led by Nick Potthoff (Phoenix, AZ) who finished with 17 points on 5-of-11 shooting.  He also added four rebounds.  Kenyatta Louder (Compton, Calif.) put up 13 points with seven boards and Jude Agbasi (Los Angeles, Calif.) came off the bench in 16 minutes to register 14 points and three assists.  Journey Shank (Burbank, Calif.) ran the point and played 31 minutes posting an impressive stat line of eight points, four rebounds, three picks and a game high six assists.  

Finding themselves behind by double digits with 4:35 to play in the opening half and then getting within two at 35-33 at the break, the Purple & Gold were once again forced to come from behind.  Five free throws to start the 2nd half from Shank and Potthoff gave WC a 38-37 lead.  After that the game went back and forth until the 4:32 mark when UCSC would put up a layup from Avri Finch that made it a three-point game.  The next time down the floor Agbasi would sink a pair of free-throws and a minute later Potthoff would drain a three that gave the Poets a 66-64 advantage.

The Banana Slugs though wouldn't go away with Finch putting up two free-throws that again tied things up.  Potthoff and Shank combined for a pair of lay-ins soon after that put Whittier up by four, and this time the lead would hold as WC would outscore UCSC 4-1 over the final 1:24.  The final run would include a steal by Shank and a lay-in from Ahmad Young (Sunnyvale, Calif.) and then two free-throws from Young that iced the game.                             

Whittier shot 43% from the field and 35% from three-point territory.  They were out rebounded inside at 39-30 and lost the battle in the paint 32-26.  The difference down the stretch came at the free-throw line where WC went 18-of-19 for a 95% clip.          

Whittier gets back to Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) play Saturday, January 4 on the road as they take on Claremont-M-S beginning at 5:00pm.