Chapman Holds Off Late Stag Run to Defeat CMS Men's Basketball in SCIAC Semis

ORANGE, Calif. – The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's basketball team rallied back from a late eight-point deficit to take a one-point lead with 1:25 left after seven straight points from Matt Meredith, but Chapman was able to respond with a 6-0 run and advance to the SCIAC Championship game with a 78-75 win over the Stags in the semifinal round on Friday evening at the Hutton Center.

With the win, Chapman improves to 22-3 on the year and moves on to face Pomona-Pitzer on Sunday in the SCIAC Championship game. CMS falls to 17-8 on the year and will await NCAA selections to determine its postseason fate. TJ Askew led the Stags with 16 points, Josh Angle had 14 points and nine rebounds, Meredith finished with 12 and Sam Johnson had 10.

The Stags were down 71-63 with five minutes to go, but Angle hit a three-pointer to cut it to five. Meredith then had a putback to make it a one-possession game, and followed with a three-pointer to knot the score at 71-71. After the Panthers split two at the line, Meredith worked free underneath the basket and received a pass from Askew to put CMS ahead 73-72 with 1:25 left.

Anthony Smith, though, gave Chapman back the lead 24 seconds later when he snuck back door for a layup, and the Panthers earned a stop before Anthony Giomi beat the shot clock with a short jumper in the paint with 20 seconds left. Jack Roggin then had a steal and a breakaway to seemingly put the game away by extending the lead to five with 10 seconds left.

Brian Kenyon got two points back quickly when he pushed the ball up the floor and hit two foul shots, and the Panthers missed the front end of a one-and-one with three seconds left to give CMS one final chance. Angle took the inbounds pass near midcourt and tried to dribble into a three-pointer, but the shot was heavily pressured and missed the mark, and the Panthers were able to hang on for the win. 

CMS came out like gang-busters, making its first eight shots from the floor and jumping out to a 16-point lead 12 minutes in. CMS started out on a 6-0 run on its first three possessions, as Angle made a jumper and Rhett Carter hit two straight baskets. Askew made the next two CMS buckets to push the lead to 11-2, and a Sam Johnson layup made the Stags 8-for-8 to start the game.

A three-pointer from Max McCalla improved CMS to 13-for-16 from the floor and gave the Stags their largest lead at 16 points with eight minutes left in the half. The Stags still led by 13 after a Kiran Kruse three-pointer made it 41-28 with 1:35 left in the half, but Chapman was able to close with six straight points to make it a 41-34 game at the break.

The Panthers then carried that momentum into the second half, making the first two baskets to extend the run to 10-0 spanning both halves. After Carter stopped the run with a jumper, the Panthers hit back-to-back three-pointers to pull ahead 46-43.

Angle hit a jump shot to tie the game 55-55 with 10:58 to go, but Chapman had three three-pointers in an 11-2 run that build its largest lead at nine points at 66-57, before CMS made a late push to take the lead.

Roggin led all scorers with 21 points and Giomi had 20 for the Panthers. Both teams shot over 50 percent from the floor, with CMS ending 32-of-62 (51.6 percent) and Chapman shooting 30-of-55 (54.5 percent), and combined for only 19 turnovers (CMS – 10, Chapman – 9).