WHITTIER – Weston Newell scored 17 points, Karl Reyes had a season-high 11, and the University of La Verne men's basketball team extended its SCIAC winning streak to four games as it pulled away from Whittier in the second-half to win 74-64 on Wednesday night at the Graham Athletic Center.
La Verne improves to 10-12 overall and 7-6 in conference play. Whittier falls to 10-11 and 4-8.
The Leopards did almost everything right in the second half. They shot 65 percent from the field, earned 23 free throws and took care of the ball, committing only five turnovers. The Leos were also excellent on the other end, holding the Poets to 34 percent shooting and only giving up seven free throws in the latter half.
La Verne made its move with about seven minutes left in the game. After Whittier's Eric Jennings sank a pair of free throws to put the Poets up 51-50, La Verne went on a 14-0 run in the next three and a half minutes to effectively put the game away. Brian Stiver had a couple of layups, Newell scored six, and Karl Reyes and Brett Stephan added a bucket each during the stretch.
All of La Verne's last nine points came from the free throw line.
Whittier led by as much as 10 points. After trading baskets most of the first half, the Poets used a late 8-2 run to take a 35-29 lead into the break and scored the first four points in the second half take the largest lead of the game at 18:43 mark.
But the Leopards slowly chipped away at the deficit with a huge contribution from freshman Hakim Arnold. In a 1:30 stretch, Arnold led a one-man run, hitting a layup, making a pair of free throws and capping it with an emphatic slam to set up the rally.
Newell scored 12 of game-high 17 points in the second half and Stiver just missed a double-double, getting eight points and nine rebounds off the bench.
Ronn See filled up the stat sheet. The senior scored 15 points, handed out seven assists, grabbed five rebounds and recorded three steals.
Arnold added three rebounds to go along with a career-high 11 points.
Jennings finished with 13 points and Tyree Landrum hauled in 13 boards for Whittier.
La Verne is tied with Chapman for fourth place in the SCIAC standings and enters arguably the toughest stretch of games to close out the season when it travels to Claremont to face first-place Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (11-1 SCIAC) at 5 p.m. The Leopards will then host second-place Pomona-Pitzer (11-2 SCIAC) on Wednesday and finish the regular season against Chapman on Feb. 22 on Senior Day.
