Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

WHITTIER, Calif. – It was a packed house inside of the Graham Athletic Center Saturday night but the raucous crowd for PAC the GAC couldn't help the Whittier College Men's Basketball team as they fell 86-68 to Occidental College.

Whittier needed to pull off another upset win but couldn't do it on Dave Jacobs Court as they drop to 9-14, 6-8 SCIAC.

The Purple & Gold were outrebounded by 30 on the evening with Oxy grabbing 14 offensive boards, which proved crucial down the stretch.  Whittier shot 50% from the field in the first half putting up 36 points but couldn't do that in the second as they were held to 31% shooting and just 32 points.  They shot 40% from the field for the game and 33.3% from three-point territory.  They were outrebounded 51-21 and fell in the paint 34-22.

Kenyatta Louder (Compton, Calif.) did the bulk of the work for the Poets finishing with 20 points on 7-of-15 shooting, while collecting seven boards.  Conner Longmire (Tarzana, Calif.) added 19 points doing his work from deep with four triples, while Journey Shank (Burbank, Calif.) registered a 10-point effort along with three assists and a steal.  Nick Potthoff (Phoenix, AZ) added eight points with five rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals and Ahmad Young (Sunnyvale, Calif.) finished with six points.

Whittier grabbed a lead midway through the first half as many as seven.  They trailed 12-5 early but managed to fight their way back.  Louder and Longmire went off with back to back three-pointers that made it a two-point game.  Young then put up two layins on two Poet possessions and that led to a big run by WC, which included nine in a row, capped off with a three-pointer from Longmire.

This lead wouldn't hold though as Oxy would come back with eight straight to regain a lead at 23-22.  The game was back and forth for the following two minutes until the 3:00 minute mark when the Tigers put together another run (14-7) that gave them a six-point lead at the break.            

Whittier has a road contest this Wednesday, February 13 when they take on Pomona-Pitzer beginning at 7:00pm.