Chapman Surges Late to Defeat CMS Men's Basketball 71-58

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's basketball team started the second half strong to whittle an 11-point deficit down to one, but Chapman was able to regroup and pull away for a 71-58  win on Saturday afternoon at Roberts Pavilion.

The win was the ninth in a row for Chapman, which maintains its hold on first place in the SCIAC at 17-2 overall and 10-2 in league play, while evening the season series with CMS. The Stags, who were without second-leading scorer TJ Askew after he was injured on Monday against Caltech, slip to 14-5 overall and 9-4 in conference play with the loss. 

Kiran Kruse stepped into the starting lineup in Askew's absence and led CMS in scoring for the second game in a row with 13 points. Josh Angle, who had 30 in the first meeting between the teams in a Stag win, was also in double figures with 12, while Brian Kenyon (eight points, six rebounds, five assists), Matt Meredith (eight points, eight rebounds) and Sam Johnson (eight points, six rebounds) had solid lines. 

Chapman led 39-28 at the half, before CMS opened the second half with seven straight points. Kruse drove baseline for a tough layup, then Kenyon threw a fast break lob to Angle for a layup. After the Stags earned another stop, Angle buried a three-pointer to close the gap to 39-35. 

A Sam Johnson jumper with 11:41 left off a Meredith feed got the Stags as close as a single point at 47-46. However, Chapman went on a 9-0 run to push the lead to 10, with Hayden Moore accounting for seven of those points. Hit hit a jumper and a three-pointer to stretch the lead back to six, Jack Roggin swiped the ball away after a CMS defensive rebound and converted to make the lead 54-46 and Moore converted a fast break layup to stretch the lead to 10. 

Kenyon stopped the run momentaruily with a three-pointer, but Chapman scored the next eight points to make it a 15-point lead and the Stags were unable to get the lead back down to single digits. Moore led all scorers with 21 points for the Panthers. 

CMS will be back in action on Wednesday for its regular season home finale against Cal Lutheran at 7 p.m. It will also be Senior Day for the program's five seniors, Askew, Johnson, Charles Meng, Alec Sinek and Luke Webb.