CMS Men's Basketball Clamps Down Early, Coasts to 72-63 Win over Caltech

CLAREMONT, Calif. - TJ Askew had 20 points and 10 rebounds and Josh Angle had a perfect day shooting (7-7 FG, 2-2 FT) for 17 points as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's basketball team set the tone early with its defense and stayed in control throughout as it captured a 72-63 win over Caltech on Wednesday evening at Roberts Pavilion.

With the win, CMS improves to 13-2 overall and 7-1 in the SCIAC, taking over sole possession of first place by a half-game over idle Pomona-Pitzer (6-1). Caltech slips to 8-8 overall and 2-5 in the league with the defeat. 

The Stags jumped out to a 13-2 lead in the game's opening minutes, and the two Caltech points came off a desperation fallaway off an out of bounds play with just one second on the shot clock. The Beavers got as close as eight points on two occasions in the first half, before CMS settled for a 33-21 lead at the half, after holding Caltech to just 7-28 shooting in the opening 20 minutes. 

The beginning of the second half saw CMS assert itself again, quickly building its largest lead at 44-24 on an Askew layup. The Beavers chipped a little off that margin and got within 46-33, but Brian Kenyon drove for a layup and Angle buried his only three-point attempt of the day to quickly get the lead back to 18. 

Kenyon made two foul shots to push the lead to 16 at 67-51 with 1:43 to go, before the Beavers got hot from three late with four baskets from beyond the arc to make the final margin look a little closer. 

Kenyon finished with 11 points and Rhett Carter had 10 to place four starters in double figures, while the fifth starter (Matt Meredith) had seven assists. CMS also shot over 50 percent from the floor for the game (27-53, 50.9) while holding Caltech to 36.7 percent (22-60) and 9-32 from three. 

CMS will be back in action on Saturday when it entertains Occidental for a 5 p.m. contest at Roberts Pavilion.