Defense Spurs CMS Men's Basketball to 63-49 Win over UC Santa Cruz
| Final | 1 | 2 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
UC Santa Cruz (3-4) | 24 | 25 | 49 |
|
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (5-1) | 38 | 25 | 63 |
CLAREMONT, Calif. - On a night when its typically high-powered offense wasn't clicking, the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's basketball team dug down defensively and came away with a 63-49 win over UC Santa Cruz on Saturday evening on the second day of the David Wells Classic at Roberts Pavilion.
CMS, which was led offensively by Kiran Kruse with 17 points, improves to 5-1 on the season, while UC Santa Cruz, which shot just 29.5 percent on the day, sees its record slip to 3-4.
Senior guard Brian Kenyon spearheaded the defensive effort, holding leading scorer Tyler Kessinger of UC Santa Cruz (16.0 ppg) to just two points on 1-8 shooting on the night. The Stags came into the game averaging 86 points per contest, and were held to 23 points below that figure, but still came away with the double digit win.
CMS ended up with four players in double figures, as Josh Angle had 16, Rhett Carter had 12 and Justin Pratt finished with 11, while Kenyon quarterbacked the offense with a team-high seven assists and no turnovers.
The key stretch of the contest came when CMS closed out the half on a 13-0 run, turning a 25-24 lead into a 38-24 lead at intermission. Pratt started the run with a jumper, and Angle scored on a fast break off a Kenyon steal. Pratt made a jumper to push it nine, and Kruse buried a three to push the lead into double digits for the first time. Kruse then capped off the half with an elbow jumper off a Pratt assist to make it a 14-point lead at the half.
Pratt started the second half with a jumper in the paint to make it a 15-0 run spanning both halves, before Kessinger hit a runner for his only two points of the night. A Kruse basket and foul with 8:32 left pushed the lead over 20 for the first time at 54-33, and a Pratt layup gave CMS its largest advantage of the night at 58-35, before the Stags settled for a 14-point final margin.
CMS will be back in action when it opens SCIAC play with a home game against Chapman on Wednesday night at 7 p.m.