Box Score Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The Whittier College Men's Basketball team was unable to follow up their upset win over No. 24 Pomona-Pitzer from Wednesday as they dropped a tight 71-66 decision to Occidental College.
The loss was a tough one to handle for the Purple & Gold who have now lost two of their last three moving them to 9-7, 4-3 SCIAC. They drop now into 4th in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Standings.
After a solid opening twenty minutes Whittier saw themselves leading 39-33 at the break. But this advantage wouldn't hold as they would give up 38 points to the Tigers in the 2nd half giving up the lead and eventually falling by five.
Nick Potthoff (Phoenix, AZ) carried the workload for the Poets putting up 21 points on 9-of-16 shooting to go with eight boards, two assists and two blocks. Jude Agbasi (Los Angeles, Calif.) had a huge game off the bench with 17 points on 4-of-9 shooting with five rebounds, two assists and a game high five steals.
Ahmad Young (Sunnyvale, Calif.) who lifted WC to the upset win over the Sagehens on Wednesday finished with eight points and seven assists, while Nolan Black (Olympia, WA) inside put up eight points and nine rebounds.
Whittier came into the match-up leading the conference in points per game (80 PPG) but was held to just 27 points in the second half, while shooting a mere 37% from the field. After going 10-of-14 from the free-throw line in the first half WC was only 3-of-7 in the second, which proved costly down the stretch.
Following the first seven minutes of the game Whittier saw themselves trailing 12-4, but then strung together a 10-2 run, with seven of the points coming from Potthoff. With 4:27 to play in the frame Oxy managed to hold onto a 31-25 lead but couldn't hold it as Black would add a pair of layups inside followed by a Potthoff triple. Then over the final two minutes it was all Whittier as Agbasi would knock down three of four free-throws, Young would add a layup and Potthoff would put up a jumper that gave the Poets a six-point advantage at the break.
It was a completely different story in the second half as Whittier's offense was limited. Journey Shank (Burbank, Calif.) extended the lead to 41-33 with a layup, but that's the largest advantage WC would hold as the Tigers would storm back with a 7-2 run to get within three. Potthoff stopped the run with another three-pointer, but soon after Oxy would put together eleven unanswered that swung the momentum giving them a 51-46 lead with 10:13 to play. After that Whittier was forced to play catch-up seeing Occidental extend their lead to twelve at the 4:43 mark. Trailing 66-52 with 1:50 to go Whittier made one final push with Shank adding a layup and free throw, Potthoff a layup and Young a pair of triples. But it wouldn't be enough to complete the comeback.
Whittier shot 38% from the field and 26% from three-point territory. They were outrebounded 43-41, but were dead even inside at 30-30. The Poets forced 16 turnovers and earned 22 points off of them and saw their bench put up 24 points.
Whittier has the week off before returning to the court next Saturday, January 25 when they travel out to take on the University of Redlands beginning at 5:00pm.
