WHITTIER — You need as many guys as possible to play well against an athletic, up-tempo team like Whittier (16-6, 8-3 SCIAC).  

Their full-court defensive pressure preys on exhausting teams by turning non-stop trapping into what looks like a transition layup drill.

With a battered eight-man Tiger rotation missing two starters, the Occidental men's basketball team (9-12, 5-6 SCIAC) fell victim to the Poets' pressure and speed 78-73 on the road.

Despite committing 19 turnovers against the press, the Tigers nearly pulled off the comeback against the SCIAC's second place team with 3 minutes, 24 seconds to go by draining three consecutive threes.

Kris Montoya (Portland) hit the first one, and then Jack Hanley (Seattle) nailed the next two to bring the Tigers within three, the closest they would come before the Poets widened the lead for good with free-throws.

"I was proud of the way we battled," Occidental coach Brian Newhall said. "We fought back and played some of our best basketball of the season, but it just wasn't enough. Our 19 turnovers need to be 14 or less in order to have a chance to pull off an upset."

Hanley finished with a game-high 27 points, and Montoya followed his lead scoring 18 points of his own. Deshun McCoy (Los Angeles) almost had a double-double with 10 points and eight rebounds, while Conrad Liebowitz (Santa Monica) grabbed 12 rebounds to go along with eight points. Reserves Nick Robinson (Palo Alto) and Nick Wright (Oakland) both started tonight and saw significant minutes. Ryan Chong (San Diego) hit a three, currently standing second in the SCIAC in three-point percentage shooting 45 percent from behind the arc.

Though a win seemed out of reach for the Tigers for most of the game, the opening 15 minutes went as well as Oxy could have hoped for.

During that time the Poets only led by as many as five points, largely because the Tigers grabbed five offensive rebounds in the first eight minutes of the game, giving them more opportunities to score.

But the game-changer was a 12-0 Poet run with five minutes left in the first half to stretch their lead to 13 from which Oxy never completely recovered.

In what at times looked like a track meet, Whittier saw four players reach double figures. Drew Menez led the Poets with 21 points, Nathan Easterman had 19 points and eight rebounds, point guard Kelly Johnson led Whittier's fast-break with 12 points and six assists, and was helped out by 10 points from Greg Preer.

Currently tied for fifth in the SCIAC with an identical record to Cal Lutheran, Oxy remains steadfast on cracking the fourth and last spot for a playoff berth.

The Tigers look to do so against Pomona-Pitzer on the road on Wednesday.