CMS Men's Basketball Breaks it Open Early, Rolls Past La Verne 83-54

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's basketball team used an early 18-2 run to turn a 5-5 tie into a 23-7 lead and never looked back as it captured an 83-54 win over La Verne on Saturday afternoon at Roberts Pavilion.

With the win, CMS now stands at 14-3 overall and 6-2 at the midway point of the SCIAC schedule, while picking up its fifth win a row. La Verne, which had won its last two games (over Chapman and Cal Lutheran) after an 0-13 start, slips to 2-14 and 2-6 in the SCIAC with the loss. 

Senior guard Miles President had 14 points on 5-7 shooting (4-4 from three) to lead CMS offensively, while senior forward Maxwell Kirsch had nine of his 11 points in the opening minutes to stake the Stags to an early lead. The starting backcourt of junior Mitchell Kirsch (six assists, no turnovers) and Brian Kenyon (four assists, no turnovers) combined for 10 assists as CMS finished the game with 24 assists on 31 baskets and had a 50-33 edge in the rebounding department, led by nine in only nine minutes from senior George Walker. 

Kenyon started the decisive early run with a driving layup to put the Stags ahead 7-5. Mitchell Kirsch then fed Maxwell Kirsch for a basket and a foul to make the score 10-5, and after a La Verne basket, the Kirsch brothers connected again, this time on a three-pointer to make it 13-7. President then hit the first of his four three-pointers on a feed from Kenyon, and a Walker layup pushed the lead to 20-7, before senior Kele Mkpado capped off a 13-0 spurt with a three-pointer to put CMS up 23-7 at only the 13:52 mark of the first half. 

La Verne scored the next five points to try to claw back in it, but a 7-0 CMS run on a President three-pointer, a Walker tip-in and a Mitchell Kirsch steal and layup gave the Stags a 34-15 advantage. First-year guard Josh Angle capped off the first half with a three-pointer to give CMS a commanding 47-17 lead at the break. 

The big advantage on the scoreboard allowed CMS to play 19 different players on the day, 15 of whom were able to find their way into the scoring column. President played the most minutes of anyone on the Stags with only 20, while CMS finished with 50 total bench points. 

Among the players who took advantage of their extended minutes were sophomore forward Sam Johnson, who had seven points on 3-4 shooting and first-year forward Jordan Hunt, who scored six points on 2-3 shooting. Sophomore guard Alec Sinek also hit a three-pointer for the final CMS field goal with 1:05 to go.

CMS finished the game shooting 46.3 percent from the floor (31-67), while holding La Verne to just 31.0 percent (18-58). The Stags were also 9-10 at the foul line, with Mkpado, Hunt and first-year guard Joey Ganley each going 2-2. 

CMS will try to keep its momentum going when it travels to Cal Lutheran on Wednesday night for a 7 p.m. contest, looking to push its winning streak to six straight.