Narrow win over Cal Lutheran gives CMS share of SCIAC regular season championship

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – One season after the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's basketball team tied for a sixth place conference finish in the SCIAC, CMS has seen a complete turnaround. With a 60-54 win at Cal Lutheran on Saturday evening in the team's final regular season game, the Athenas secured a share of the SCIAC regular season championship with Chapman.

Both teams finished at 14-2 in conference, but because Chapman defeated CMS (22-3, 14-2 SCIAC) both times this season, Chapman has earned the conference's top seed into the SCIAC Tournament and will host No. 4 seed Cal Lutheran, while CMS is the second seed and will host the No. 3 seed University of Redlands (19-6 overall, 12-4 SCIAC) on Thursday evening at Ducey Gym.

CMS last earned a conference title or share of a conference title in 2004 when the Athenas went 21-6 overall and 11-3 in SCIAC. With Saturday's win over Cal Lutheran, CMS has 22 wins and is now just one win shy of the program-best mark of 23 wins set back in 1987-88 when the team went 23-3.

Against Cal Lutheran, CMS had a double-digit lead in the second half on multiple occasions but could not pull away. A lay-up by Cal Lutheran's Janelle Porter with 12 seconds left narrowed CMS' lead to 57-54 which as close as Cal Lutheran could get.

Junior guard Kimberly Scamman then sealed the win for the Athenas with a pair of free-throws to cap off her game-high, 25-point night.

CMS led the game throughout with the exception of a few ties and led 29-22 at halftime.

Senior center Chloe Dobbert and freshman guard Kris Brackmann each had nine points for the Athenas.

CMS overcame a poor shooting night and 24 turnovers by outrebounding Cal Lutheran 43-32.

Jessica Salottolo led Cal Lutheran with 16 points off the bench.

Box score: http://www.cmsathletics.org/sports/wbkb/2013-14/boxscores/20140222_gvwg.xml?view=boxscore