Angle's 30 Points Helps CMS Men's Basketball to Season-Opening Win at Puget Sound

TACOMA, Wash. - Junior guard Josh Angle had 30 points on 9-13 shooting as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's basketball team opened up its 2021-22 season with a convincing 73-59 road win over Puget Sound on Friday evening on the first day of the Doug McArthur Classic.

Angle shattered his previous career high of 15 points, which he set against Pomona-Pitzer as a first-year in 2019-20. He shot 9-13 from the floor, 5-8 from three, and 7-7 from the foul line to double his previous high scoring output. CMS opens its season 1-0, while dropping Puget Sound to 2-3, after the Loggers had four games under their belt in the last two weeks before the Stags opened theirs. 

The CMS defense made the Loggers look like the rusty ones, as the Stags allowed just seven points in almost the first 15 minutes of play.  Angle hit back-to-back three-pointers 41 seconds apart to put CMS ahead 10-2 at the 14:20 mark, and Brian Kenyon and Matt Meredith had consecutive layups to put CMS ahead 21-7 with 5:35 left in the half. 

A three-pointer finally got Puget Sound into double figures with 5:08 left in the half, and the Loggers caught fire over the remainder of the half, coming all the back to within 30-27 at intermission on a buzzer-beating three-pointer from Will Matthews.  Puget Sound added the first basket of the second half to make it a one-point game, and it seemed like maybe the home team would take control. 

However, CMS responded in a big way with a clutch 10-0 run. Kenyon started it with a three-pointer, and Meredith followed with another three-pointer on the next possession to put CMS ahead 36-29. Angle then hit two foul shots and Kenyon had a steal and a lay-up to put CMS back ahead by double figures at 40-29 with 15:45 left. 

Angle then had all eight CMS points in an 8-2 run to put the Stags ahead 52-38 with 10:09, capping the spurt with a three-pointer off a feed from Max McCalla. The Loggers got it back to within 10, but TJ Askew scored five straight points on a three-pointer and a layup to put CMS ahead 57-42 with 7:37 to go and the Stags weren't threatened the rest of the way. 

Askew joined Angle in double figures with 14 points for the Stags, who shot over 50 percent from the floor (51.0 percent, 26-51 FG) in their first game in almost two years, as well as 86.7 percent (13-15) at the foul line. 

CMS will be back in action tomorrow on the second day of the Doug McArthur Classic against Pacific Lutheran, beginning at 4 p.m.