LOS ANGELES, Calif. – In a Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference showdown between the Tigers and Poets who entered the evening knotted amidst the league standings, it was Whittier College who walked away victorious, 57-53, this evening at Rush Gymnasium.

It was a solid all-around performance by Whittier that sent Oxy home with their first loss in February tonight. That defense forced 21 Tigers' turnovers, which they converted into 17 points.

“We were a bit lethargic and did not play with much focus or energy tonight; Whitter's defense was a big part of that,” head coach Brian Newhall said following the game.

The Tigers were not out of reach, however.

Occidental led by four points 12 minutes in, but when the Poets broke an 18-18 tie with 3:48 to play. The visiting team used a 10-3 run, capped off by point guard Jordan Ramos hitting a long three-pointer with two seconds to play in the opening stanza, to take a 28-21 lead into the locker rooms.

In the second half Whittier pushed their lead to 11 points, but the young Tigers chipped their way to within three at 53-50 with just under a minute to play when Sam Stapleton connected for his only three-pointer of the night.

Having to foul to stay in the game, Oxy put the ball in the hands of Whittier's Greg Preer who went 2-for-2, but the Tigers would reciprocate as a Whittier foul put Stapleton on the charity stripe and he knocked down all three to cut the deficit to 55-53 with 33 seconds to play.

After another quick foul, WC went to the line, adding one to their total. Jack Hanley took the ball down to the Tigers' end of the court and a jumper hit the rim twice but didn't fall in favor of the Black and Orange again forcing an Oxy foul.

With 5.5 seconds remaining in regulation, Preer would take another trip to the line, making a clutch free-throw to make it a two possession game and ultimately marking the final basket of the game.

On paper the Tigers held the edge shooting and rebounding, and held Whittier, the conference's leading scoring team, to 10 points below their season average, but Oxy turnovers were the difference tonight.

Occidental hit on 46 percent of their shots from the field tonight while WC shot at a 45 percent clip from the field. The Tigers were 8-for-11 from the line while Whittier was 11-for-21, but made them when they counted most. Whittier was held 0-for-6 from three-point range in the second half.

On the glass, Oxy came down with 32 rebounds to Whittier's 28, although WC had 10 on the offensive end, which led to 11 second chance points. Damon Perry finished with five offensive rebounds to lead all players. Drew Dockweiler came down with a game-high nine rebounds followed by Deshun McCoy and Jake Copithorne who grabbed eight apiece. Dockweiler also finished with three steals. Kris Montoya tallied two blocks and a steal.

Offensively, McCoy led all player with 18 points on 9-for-12 shooting. Stapleton was the only other Tiger in double figures with 10. Copithorne handed out a game-high seven assists.

Whittier was led by Perry with 15 points and Willie Mebane with 13. Perry also had a team-high eight rebounds for the Poets.

A University of Redlands victory over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, a Pomona-Pitzer victory over the University of La Verne and a Cal Lutheran University victory over Caltech tonight mix up the SCIAC Standings. CMS and UR are now tied atop the standings with 9-3 marks, followed by ULV and WC at 7-5, with CLU and Oxy right behind at 6-6. PP (4-8) and CIT (0-12) round out the league.

Occidental returns to their home court for the final time in the regular season on Saturday, Feb. 19 to tip-off  against a strong, athletic Cal Lutheran team at 7:00 p.m. following the women's home finale at 5:00 p.m.

Earlier this season CLU earned a 55-53 overtime victory over Oxy at the Gilbert Arena.

Article by Tracy Maple, Sports Information Director