CMS Men's Basketball Rests Starters, Takes Redlands to Wire in 74-70 Regular Season Finale Defeat

REDLANDS, Calif. – The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's basketball team rested its starters in its regular season finale at Redlands, and nearly earned the win anyway, but the Bulldogs used a late run to defend their home court with a 74-70 win on Monday evening at Currier Gymnasium.

With the loss, CMS ends the regular season at 17-7 overall and 10-6 in the SCIAC, while Redlands moves to 11-11 and 7-9 in league play.

CMS starters Josh Angle, Brian Kenyon, Matt Meredith and TJ Askew did not play, nor did reserve big man Sam Johnson, who played a season-high 25 minutes on Saturday against Pomona-Pitzer. Rhett Carter was the only usual member of the starting five to be on the floor for the opening tip for the Stags, but he played only the first four minutes before checking out of the game for good.

In their place, several CMS reserves rose to the occasion to help the Stags battle Redlands down to the wire. Junior swingman Kiran Kruse matched his career high with 20 points, senior guard Charles Meng got his first start and had a career-high 13 points, and senior forward Luke Webb was also in double figures with 10.

Redlands took an eight-point lead (29-21) late in the first half as the Bulldogs appeared ready to pull away, but CMS answered with a mini-run, starting with a Jordan Hunt jumper and ending with a Max McCalla three-pointer to pull back within 31-30. The Bulldogs held a 37-32 lead at the break, but a Meng three-pointer put CMS back in front 41-40 with 16:56 left. Teddy Mangiarotti's three-pointer made the score 49-43 in favor of the Stags, but Redlands was able to get the lead back 59-58 on a three-pointer with 5:08 to go from Josh Himel.

After the Bulldogs hit two foul shots, Meng made a jump shot to pull CMS within 61-60, but Redlands answered with a Robert Power three-pointer to start a 5-0 run to go ahead by six. A Kruse three-pointer with 27 seconds left got CMS within one possession at 68-65, but the Bulldogs hit six straight foul shots around a Mangiarotti three-pointer to seal the win.  

The game was played under unusual circumstances, as CMS was already locked into the No. 3 seed in this week's SCIAC Tournament and Redlands was locked into the No. 6, meaning that the two teams knew going in that they would play again in two days with much higher stakes. The tournament was also expanded to eight teams this year, with a Wednesday-Friday-Sunday format, following a Saturday-Monday conclusion to the regular season, meaning that the path to a championship for CMS would have to involve playing five games in nine days.

The Stags were also coming off a hard-fought Sixth Street Rivalry game with Pomona-Pitzer two days ago, in which Angle (38), Meredith (37) and Kenyon (34) played heavy minutes, while Askew was coming off a recent injury that kept him out of the lineup in a loss to Chapman last week. Redlands, meanwhile, had a bye on Saturday and regularly uses a deep bench (nobody on the Bulldogs averages more than 27 minutes), so they used the finale to stay sharp and try to build some momentum, while likely leaving some strategic wrinkles in their pocket for the more significant rematch.

The teams will meet again on Wednesday night in the SCIAC Quarterfinal round at Roberts Pavilion, with a 7 p.m. tipoff, with the winner moving on to Friday's semifinal round against the winner between second-seeded Chapman and seventh-seeded Whittier.