Stags Earn Scalmanini Milestone Win

CMS beat Redlands 63-58 on Tuesday evening and in the process secured themselves a spot in the SCIAC Tournament and earned Head Coach Ken Scalmanini his 100th SCIAC victory.  Scalmanini is now 100-40 after 10 seasons and is only the second men's coach in SCIAC history to win 100 games in his first 10 seasons.  CMS is 14-11 overall and finish the SCIAC season 8-6 (3rd).

The Stags played a great defensive first half and only allowed the Bulldogs to score one basket in the first 14 minutes and only five in the half.  CMS led by 11 at the break and built the lead to 17 with under eight minutes remaining.  Redlands got back in the game behind some timely three-point shooting and poor foul shooting by CMS and cut the lead to two in the final minute.  Conner Faught (SO, Agoura Hills [pictured]), who led the Stags with a career-high 22 points and had just hit a jumper as the shot clock expired, drained a long-range three for the final margin.

Austin Soldner (JR, Southlake, TX) added 10 points and eight rebounds and Dan Winterbottom (SR, Tempe, AZ) led the team with 10 rebounds and four steals.

Dave Thomas led the Bulldogs with 16 points.

This was the final home game for CMS' seven seniors: Winterbottom, Craig Borengasser (Tempe, AZ), Umar Khan (Pasadena), Nitin Savant (Rolling Hills), Zach Weismann (Dallas, TX), Phil Kaestle (Mercer Island, WA) and Andrew Skrip (Alamo)

CMS will play at #1 seed Occidental in the SCIAC Tournament semifinals on Friday, February 29 at 7:30.  The winner of that game will face the winner of the #3 Pomona-Pitzer @ #2 Cal Lutheran game on Saturday, March 1 at 7:30.  The final will hosted by the highest remaining seed.  The winner of the SCIAC Tournament will earn the SCIAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Playoffs.