LOS ANGELES, Calif. (Feb. 29, 2008) –
From the fans to the court Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Occidental
College fought a tough battle tonight in the semi-final game of the
first ever SCIAC Post-Season Men's Basketball Tournament.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, the Stags stormed into Rush Gymnasium
in the second half with a hot offense and tough defense en route to
a 66-62 come-from-behind upset win.
Things were tight from the get-go. CMS won the
tip and scored first, but the teams exchanged buckets, with the gap
never more than six, an advantage that Oxy held with 2:22 to go in
the first half. Both teams were solid from the field as Oxy shot
60% and CMS was on target 56% of the time. The Stags closed out the
first half with a 5-0 run, pulling the score to 34-33 going into
the locker rooms.
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps took the lead 35
seconds into the final period of play and didn't look back.
Down by 13 points, the Tigers continued to claw back pulling within
a pair at the 2:30 mark and with 48 seconds to play, but even the
intensity of the crowd couldn't make the ball sail through
the net. A near steal with 37 seconds left came up just short for
the Tigers and the Stags capitalized with a bucked to give CMS a
two-possession lead, with the ultimate final basket of the game.
A tough Stags defense held the Tigers offense
to 9-for-29 second half performance, including just 2-for-9 from
behind the arc, while they continued to hit, shooting 57.1 % from
the field in the second half. While Oxy was able to shut down the
Stags' leading scorer, Dan Winterbottom (three points), four
players reached double-figures.
Oxy's usually solid free-throw shooting
struggled as well, hitting just 61.9% of the time tonight.
With the fans on opposite sides of the gym the
chanting back-and-forth coupled with the competition on the floor
made for an exciting Post-Season atmosphere.
Senior guard Connor Whitman
capped off his collegiate career with a 16-point performance,.
Gemayal McBride poured in 14 points, scoring seven
in the second half, and Huston Conti finished with
13 points.
The Stags' Conner Faught led all players
with 17 points while Craig Borengasser, Chris Blees and Austin
Soldner scored 15, 13 and 11 points,
respectively, for CMS tonight.
Occidental out-rebounded CMS 28-26, grabbing
nine offensive boards. Soldner had a game-high nine rebounds and
Borengasser had seven. Whitman led all Oxy players with six and
Sean Anderson came down with five while recording
a pair of blocks. McBride had a couple steals in the game and added
two assists. Chris Pitcher led the way for the
Tigers with four assists in the game.
A few missed opportunities down the stretch
hurt the Tigers in their quest to advance to the SCIAC Tournament
Championship game with the opportunity to earn an automatic bid to
the NCAA post season.
Occidental's overall record falls to
21-5 while CMS improves to 15-12. CMS advances to the Championship
game against Pomona-Pitzer, who defeated Cal Lutheran 54-44 in
Thousand Oaks tonight. PP will host CMS tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m.
as the third seeded team.
Hope is not over yet for the Tigers, as the
team could still earn an at-large bid to play on. Tournament
selections will be announced on Monday morning, March 3.
