CMS Women's Basketball Hosts Redlands Tonight at 7 PM in SCIAC Semifinal Round

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's basketball team, winners of 19 games in a row, will entertain Redlands this evening at 7 p.m. at Roberts Pavilion in the semifinals of the 2019 SCIAC Tournament.

Tickets for SCIAC postseason events are $10 for general admission (12 and up), $5 for senior citizens (55 and up) and military personnel, and free for anyone with a valid SCIAC ID. Live video for the game will also be shown through the SCIAC portal on Stretch Internet (link here). 

CMS is the top seed in the SCIAC Tournament, earning the right to host any tournament games it plays in by finishing in first place in the regular season with a 15-1 record. The Athenas have not lost since falling at home to Chapman back on Dec. 1, and come into the SCIAC Tournament at 23-2 overall, one win shy of matching the program record for wins in a season. 

The other semifinal will take place tonight down the street as second-seed Pomona-Pitzer hosts third-seeded Chapman at 7 p.m. The two semifinal winners will play each other on Saturday at the site of the higher seed, which will be held at 5 p.m. at Roberts Pavilion if CMS were to advance. 

The Athenas had two tough defensive battles with Redlands during the regular season, emerging with a hard-fought 47-41 win on the road on Jan. 5, and then winning the rematch at home 53-41 three weeks later on Jan. 26. Junior guard Gloria Bates (pictured) had a huge game in the rematch at home, finishing with a career-high 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the floor. 

In yesterday's postseason awards announcement, the Athenas boasted two first-team All-SCIAC selections in junior guard Maya Love (12.5 ppg and 9.6 rpg) and junior forward Lindsey Cleary (7.7 ppg, 51.0 field goal percentage). Redlands (11-14, 8-8 SCIAC) had junior guard Cassandra Lacey (18.1 ppg) on the first team and first-year wing Alyssa Downs (15.6 ppg) on the second team. CMS held Lacey to 10 points in the first meeting and six in the second, as the junior standout will try to solve an Athena defense that ranks first in the SCIAC by a wide margin, holding opponents to 51.0 points per game (second place is Caltech, 10 points higher at 61.0 points per game).

CMS will be trying to return to the championship stepladder to cut down the nets this weekend, after seeing its streak of four straight conference tournament titles snapped by Chapman in double overtime a year ago. The Athenas have won at least a share of the SCIAC regular season title in each of the last six seasons, and picked up a pair of NCAA Tournament wins in 2016 and 2017, before just missing a return visit a year ago by the thinnest of margins.