Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com

WHITTIER, Calif. – It was a night for celebrating the Whittier College staff and faculty, but by the end of the evening it was Pomona-Pitzer who acted as spoiler beating the Men's Basketball team 97-75 inside of the Graham Athletic Center.

The Purple & Gold have had a tough stretch of games dropping their third straight and their seventh of their last eight.  They drop to 10-13, 5-9 SCIAC.

Whittier had no answer for the Sagehens offense who shot a blistering 58.1% from the field and 51.5% from three-point territory.  Whittier though did outrebound Pomona-Pitzer 34-32, and added 15 second chance points, but was edged 28-22 inside the paint.

Four players recorded double figures for the Poets led by Nick Potthoff (Phoenix, AZ) who added 18 with six boards and two assists.  Ahmad Young (Sunnyvale, Calif.) registered 15 on 5-of-7 shooting with four rebounds, two assists and a steal and Jude Agbasi (Los Angeles, Calif.) provided the spark off the bench with 15 points.

Journey Shank (Burbank, Calif.) at the point despite only having five points, was big on the glass with eight along with three assists and two steals. 

Pomona-Pitzer jumped out in front 13-6 and never looked back extending that lead to 22-7 with just under 13 minutes to play in the half.  Whittier fought back to get within eight all coming from Agbasi who put up a jumper, a triple and a free throw.  But that's as close as they would get as PP would put together another big run outscoring WC 14-0 over the next few minutes giving them a 22-point advantage. 

The second half was all Whittier putting together a furious comeback, but it wasn't enough to pull off the upset as they would get edged 44-43 over the final 20:00 minutes.  The Ppets got within 13 with 10:11 to play but couldn't make any more of a dent as the Sagehens would regroup and go on a 15-3 run. 

Whittier has their final home game of the season this Saturday, February 22 when they host the University of Redlands beginning at 5:00pm.