WHITTIER, Calif.– Hungry for their first Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory of 2011, the Occidental College Tigers jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the opening stanza but trailed 47-33 at the intermission tonight, falling 76-67 to the Poets at the Graham Athletics Center on the campus of Whittier College.

Occidental opened the game on a 10-0 charge before the Poets chipped their way back into the game, taking a lead a when Ricky Kamayatsu hit a three-pointer to put the Poets on top 11-10, as part of a 27-1 run. Oxy looked to freshman Kris Montoya to break the drought with a bucket at the 9:46 mark.

With 9:34 to play in the opening half, down 29-13, Occidental took a time out. Whittier pushed their lead to 23, but the Black and Orange then clawed their way back within 12 on a Deshun McCoy layup with 25 seconds to go, as the final two points of the half for Oxy. Whittier took the momentum into the locker room, though, when Kamayatsu scored the final two of his 11 first half points at the buzzer.

After the break, playing catch-up, Jack Hanley took the Tigers on his back, scoring eight of the first 10 Oxy points in the half. Drew Dockweiler layed one in and finished off the three-point play with 10:22 remaining in regulation. Moments later McCoy was fouled, Whittier's seventh of the half, and followed with a pair of free-throws of his own.

A strong free-throw shooting team, historically, that struggled in the last two games at the charity stripe, returned to fine form against the Poets as they combined to shoot 21-for-24 tonight with Hanley going a perfect 11-for-11 en route to a game-high 27 points, the second best performance of his collegiate career. Hanley added three assists while Sam Stapleton had a game-high seven.

Unfortunately, though, the perimeter shooting continued to plague the Tigers as they were 0-for (13) in the second consecutive game. The Tigers shot 35 percent from the floor tonight.

Each team came down with 41 rebounds and Occidental held a 17-14 edge on the offensive end of the court. Oxy scored 14 second chance points. Whittier, who came down with 14 offensive rebounds, scored 25 second chance points tonight.

McCoy was a rebound away from a double-double with 20 points and nine boards, which led the Tigers. Jake Copithorne also finished with nine rebounds and Ty Cobb came down with seven. Copithorne also chipped in with seven points and four assists.

The Purple and Gold used their depth for 25 points from their bench while Oxy's bench provided just 12 points for the Black and Orange tonight.

Whittier(7-8, 2-2 SCIAC), after shooting at a clip of 61 percent in the first half, finished the game 50 percent from the floor. WC placed four players in double figures as Damon Perry recorded an 11-point, 12-rebound (to lead all players) game.

In a sloppy game the Tigers and Poets combined to turn the ball over 35 times, converting those into 22 and 26 points, respectively. Stapleton, McCoy and Joe Greenaway each had two steals in the game.

Occidental (6-9, 0-4) will be back in Rush Gymnasium on Saturday evening at 7:00 p.m. when they host the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens on the back end of a double-header with the women's team, which is scheduled to tip-off at 5:00 p.m.  

Article by Tracy Maple, Sports Information Director