Angle Comes Up Big Late to Lead CMS Men's Basketball into SCIAC Semifinals

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Junior guard Josh Angle had 28 points, including 10 big ones in the final two minutes, as the third-seeded Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's basketball team overcame a tough challenge from sixth-seeded Redlands for a 73-69 win in the SCIAC Quarterfinals on Wednesday evening at Roberts Pavilion.

CMS, which trailed by as many as nine in the second half and was down one with two minutes left before Angle took over, improves to 17-7 on the year and advances to Friday's semifinal round at Chapman, which survived its own scare before defeating Whittier in overtime. Redlands ends its season with an 11-12 record with the loss. 

Angle, who earlier in the day was named to the All-SCIAC first team, came into the game shooting 87 percent from the season from the foul line, but uncharacteristically missed two with 2:16 left and the Stags trailing 63-62. He responded to the setback though, by coming up with a big defensive rebound in traffic and drew another foul, converting both this time to put the Stags ahead to stay at 64-63 with 1:51 on the clock. After Redlands missed a three-pointer, Angle came down with another defensive rebound, his ninth of the game, and hit a huge three-pointer with 1:14 left to put the Stags ahead by two possessions. 

Redlands had one more run, as Neil Owens hit three of four from the line around a CMS turnover to get the Bulldogs within 67-66 with 47 seconds left. CMS then milked the shot clock down to the final moments, and Angle buried another huge three to make it a 70-66 lead with 17 seconds remaining. After an intentional foul resulted in the Stags making one of two at the line, Angle was fouled on the ensuing inbounds pass and hit two more foul shots to give him 28 points on the night, and 10 of the last 11 CMS points in the final 1:51. 

The closing stretch was the final big spurt for CMS, but it had another big one earlier in the half. After Redlands went ahead 49-41, Angle drove for a layup, Brian Kenyon had a steal and fed Matt Meredith for a fast break layup, and then TJ Askew had a steal at one end and finished the fast break at the other end with a tip-in to quickly make it a 49-47 game and force a Redlands timeout. The Bulldogs bounced back to go ahead 53-47, but Angle hit a three, Rhett Carter put back a rare Angle miss, and Askew converted a layup to put CMS in front. 

Angle was 8-11 from the floor on his way to 28 points, including 5-5 on two-point shots and 3-6 from beyond the arc. He actually had his career high against Redlands at Roberts Pavilion earlier this year, when he finished with 36. Askew added 16 points on 4-6 shooting for CMS, while Carter was in double figures with 11 on 5-9 shooting. 

CMS will face Chapman on Friday night for the right to advance to the SCIAC Championship on Sunday. The two teams split during the regular season with the road team winning each game, although Askew, who was a second-team All-SCIAC selection, was missing in the Chapman win at Roberts Pavilion with an injury.