Hot-Shooting First Half Leads CMS Women's Basketball to 83-60 Win over King's College

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Junior guard Maya Love had 16 points on 6-7 shooting in only 15 minutes, as the CMS women's basketball team used a 51-point first half to cruise to an 83-60 win over King's (Pa.) College on Sunday night at Roberts Pavilion.

Sophomore forward Kate Parrish (pictured) added a double-double off the bench with 12 points and 10 rebounds in only 13 minutes, as the Athenas won their fifth straight game to move to 9-2 on the season. King's slips to 6-5 on the season with the loss. 

Strong balance and sharing the ball helped CMS to its offensive output. Five players ended up in double figures in scoring for the Athenas, while 12 different players recorded at least one assist as CMS finished with 22 assists and 12 turnovers as a team. Senior guard Corinne Bogle had 13 points, junior forward Lindsey Cleary had 10 points on 5-5 shooting and junior forward Gloria Bates added 10 points.  

WBB: Love drives and finds Cleary for a first half jump shot as the Athenas lead King's 51-30 at the break. CMS with a 30-10 edge in rebounding and a 28-14 edge in points in the paint. pic.twitter.com/mTL3nDmLpP

— CMS Athletics (@AthleticsCMS) December 31, 2018

CMS scored 28 points in the first quarter alone on 12-20 shooting as it led 28-18 after the first 10 minutes. After falling behind 14-5 early, the Monarch battled back and trailed just 18-15 with 3:07 left in the first before CMS closed out the frame on a 10-3 run. Parrish had a lay-up off a put-back and sophomore guard Maezelle Millan had a steal and went coast to coast for a lay-up to push the lead to 22-15. 

Bates drove to the basket for a lay-up with 58 seconds left in the quarter to make the CMS lead 26-18, and Parrish closed out the quarter with a lay-up on her own second effort to beat the buzzer and make it a 10-point lead heading into the second. 

CMS then opened the second quarter on a 10-0 run to take a commanding 20-point advantage. Parrish had the first six points of the stanza on two lay-ups and a pair of foul shots, and Love finished it off with a pair of lay-ups to make the score 38-18 with 6:41 left in the half. Love had four more points to give CMS its largest lead of the half at 51-28, before King's had the final basket of the quarter to make it a 51-30 game at the break. 

Senior forward Ellery Koelker-Wolfe knocked down a three to give CMS a 56-32 lead early in the third quarter, before King's answered with an 8-0 run. Bogle knocked down a three-pointer to stop the run, and Bates followed with a three-point play to get the lead back up over 20 at 62-40, and CMS wasn't threatened again. The Athenas led by as many as 29 in the fourth quarter before settling for the 83-60 final margin. 

The current five-game win streak for CMS has seen all five wins come by double-figure margins. In fact, after opening the year with two close wins on its opening road trip (56-54 over Willamette, 54-48 over Pacific), the last seven wins for CMS have been by a combined 172 points (an average margin of 24.6 points).  

CMS finished with a dominant 53-29 rebounding edge, including 16-2 in the first quarter and 30-10 in the first half, led by Parrish, who had eight of her 10 rebounds on the offensive end. CMS had 26 second-chance points to only 10 for King's.

The Athenas return to action after the new year when they return to SCIAC play with a road game at Redlands on Saturday, Jan. 5.