Men's basketball loses in final seconds

Issue 17, Joseph Marlitt, men's basketball late loss 65-64, Sports - By Joseph Marlitt on Thursday, February 9, 2012 - 03:43

The only thing that separates Whittier College Men’s Basketball team and Claremont-M-S seems to be home-court advantage. The Poets, after defeating the Stags in double-overtime earlier in the season, failed to sweep complete a regular season sweep as they fell in the final seconds of regulation 65-64 on Saturday, Jan. 4 in front of nearly 800 Stag supporters.

Claremont took a 1 point lead with 22 seconds remaining in the contest after Poet’s senior forward Drew Menez sent the Stags’ Chris Blees to the free-throw line.

After convering one of two, the Stags got the rebound off of the missed free-throw, but Blees turned the ball over and Whittier called timeout as they trailed by 1. The Poets had a chance to win the game with the final possession down by 1 point, but senior forward Nathaniel Easterman missed a layup as the clock expired.

The Poets once again let a strong start slip away from them as they cruised out to an early 8-0 and led by as much as 21-10 in the first-half. Just as C-M-S had punished them after trailing early in the game, the Poets saw their lead dissipate to 2 at halftime.

Easterman led the Poets in scoring and rebounding with 23 points on 7-11 shooting and eight rebounds. Senior guard Greg Preer had 12 points, five rebounds and five assists on 4-8 shooting. Despite taking a team high 12 shots, Menez could not make the ball fall as he finished with 9 points on 4-12 shooting and six rebounds.

The game was a defensive grind, as neither team could establish any offensive momentum and full-court presses were being implemented by both teams during a majority of the game.
The Poets scored more than 20 points less than their season average of 87.6, and a majority of that difference was a direct effect from their rebounding.

Claremont-M-S pounded the offensive boards, out-muscling the Poets en route to 17 offensive rebounds while the Poets only managed 10. Both teams struggled from the free-throw line mightily as Claremont shot 57 percent and the Poets shot 68 percent.

The final five games for the Purple and Gold are all against conference opponents including a home game against Occidental on Saturday, Feb. 11 at 7 p.m., a crucial away game against Pomona-Pitzer on Saturday, Feb. 18 at 7 p.m and their final game of the regular season against La Verne at home on Feb. 21 at 7 p.m.