Season in Review: 2021-22 Stags Basketball
24th Consecutive Season with a Winning Record
14th Consecutive SCIAC Tournament Appearance
Written by Michael Haas, CMC '79
It is time to look back at the 2021-22 season of the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags basketball team and revel in its successes while also looking forward to the 2022-23 campaign. Having lost the 2020-21 season to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Stags came back with a strong showing with a fresh lineup of veterans and newcomers ready to take on the Division III basketball world.
CMS re-established records – to affirm: its own records – for any member of the Southern California Intercollegiate Conference by posting a winning record for the 24th consecutive year and by qualifying for conference post-season tournament for the 14th straight season. Indeed, only CMS can make the claim of qualifying for the SCIAC tournament each and every year since the tournament debuted in 2008.
This season opened with a successful trip to the University of Puget Sound Tip-off tournament. The Stags swept the tournament with wins over host UPS and George Fox. This started the team on a non-conference record of 6-1 leading into the always intense and exciting SCIAC schedule.
And it is CMS that continues to lead the way in the conference. Throughout this relatively new century, the Stags have finished in the top four position in the SCIAC standings every year including ten championships and eight times as runners-up. In securing its 24th straight winning season, CMS has strengthened it claim as being the winningest team in the conference since the Stags began conference play in 1960.
This year's junior and senior class once again showed its leadership both on and off the court by mentoring the younger members and newcomers to the team. There were five seniors in 2021-22 and all played big roles in their careers with the Stags. As they lost their sophomore and junior years respectively, they responded beyond expectations with their outstanding play.
Six juniors, four sophomores, and five freshmen made up the remainder of the roster. These players together with the senior leadership formed the foundation of a Stags team that thrived going 17-8 on the season and 10-6 in conference play.
TJ Askew (Sr., CMC, Papua, New Guinea) elevated to a starting position after two years coming off the bench at the small forward position.
Luke Webb (Sr., CMC, West Hills) had missed much of his first two seasons to injury but returned for his senior year as one of the rotating post players.
Likewise, Sam Johnson (Sr., CMC, Spring Lake, MI) also solidified the CMS defense inside at the center position while contributing offensively with his soft shooting touch.
Charles Meng (Sr., HMC, Cupertino) came off the bench at the point guard position and brought quickness and strong defensive skills to the court.
Alec Sinek (Sr., CMC, Fullerton) continued his role coming off the bench as another in the arsenal of point guards with depth in the area of both shooting and defensive prowess.
Josh Angle (Jr., CMC, Lake Oswego, OR) earned the starting spot at the wing and made the most of it as the team's leading scorer and second leading rebounder. Bryan Kenyon (Jr., CMC, Manhattan, NY) returned for his second season as the starting point guard and once again took the lead in running the Stags offense. Rhett Carter (Jr., CMC, Sudbury, MA) was another first year player from two years ago who moved into a starting spot for the 2021-22 season – as the team's center as a strong rebounder and consistent scorer in the middle.
Kiran Kruse (Jr., CMC, Menlo Park) and Joey Ganley (Jr., Edina, MN) both came off the bench at the small forward position and added to the CMS offensive punch. Jordan Hunt (Jr., HMC, Piedmont) could play either the power forward or the center position and always brought high energy to spark the team.
Connor Printz (So., CMC, Waterbury, CT) and Max McCalla (So., CMC, Manhattan Beach) made their delayed debuts as wing players for the Stags and both came off the bench contributing to the outside shooting attack averaging 10 points per game between them. Nate Dominick (So., CMC, Allen, TX) and Lucas Grandison (So., HMC, Berkeley) played reserve roles as outside forwards.
Matt Meredith (Fr., CMC, Orinda) arrived at CMS and won the power forward starting spot – and showed why averaging almost 8 points per game and leading the team at 7.1 rebounds per game. Teddy Mangiarotti (Fr., CMC, Locust Valley, NY) was another in the CMS arsenal of point guards who contributed with solid defense coming off the bench.
Those two were joined by Stuart McCallum (Fr., CMC, Lexington, MA) and Lucas McEachern (Fr., CMC, Noisy le Roi, France) who played reserve roles at the forward position. Henry Wojnicki (Fr., HMC, Toronto, ONT, Canada) added to the other Stags post players to maintain a formidable defensive challenge to CMS opponents.
After the season opening trip to Tacoma, the team returned to action at the Roberts Pavilion for the Wells Classic where the team split its games against Whitworth and Linfield in two more games against Northwest Conference rivals. The Wells Classic was created and then named in memory of former Stags head coach and athletic director David Wells who envisioned this Division III tournament for strong academic institutions with top basketball programs.
Before winter break, came more non-conference wins over Cal Miramar, UC Santa Cruz, and Pacific (OR). More importantly, the 2021-21 schedule had CMS playing its first two SCIAC games right before Fall semester final exams. Showing no effects of fatigue, the Stags took care of business with wins over La Verne and Pomona-Pitzer.
Playing on New Year's Day started CMS on an early SCIAC run in the new year winning five of its next six conference match-ups with victories over Whitter, Occidental, Chapman, Redlands, and Caltech. February saw the Stags close out the SCIAC season with wins over La Verne, Whittier, and Cal Lutheran.
The SCIAC post-season tournament was next up for the Stags. This year marked the 14th consecutive year that CMS qualified for the tournament – the only conference school that can make that claim. Due to the pandemic, the tournament was expanded to eight teams this year. CMS hosted Redlands in the quarterfinal match-up and held on at the end for the 73-69 victory. Unfortunately, the Stags' season would come to an end in a heart-breaking three-point loss at Chapman.
After the action on the court, there were more highlights to celebrate for CMS as the SCIAC coaches met to choose the all-conference teams. Josh Angle was selected 1st team All-SCIAC while TJ Askew was honored on the 2nd team.
At the team's post-season banquet, the players chose their peers for the team awards. Brian Kenyon was chosen as the team's best defensive player. Sam Johnson was honored as the most improved player. Josh Angle was voted the team's most valuable player based on his strong offensive showing. Josh also was selected to the All-West Region First Team and was the only non-senior selected to the Academic All-American team placing on the third team.
Freshman Matt Meredith was the recipient of the Kampe Hustle Award. This is the award named in memory of former Stags all conference player Chris Kampe (CMC '85) who passed away from cancer in 1993 but who inspired his teammates to play with the highest level of determination and exemplary effort.
The final team award passed out this year was the Bob Sunshine captains award given to TJ Askew and Sam Johnson and Josh Angle and Brian Kenyon. The award was renamed in honor of former Stags captain Bob Sunshine who graduated in 1961 and who was the program's first captain back in 1958-59.
Another highlight of the year came when Chris Blees (CMC '11, RDS '12) was inducted into the Ted Ducey CMS Athletic Hall of Fame. Chris is the only SCIAC student-athlete to be named men's basketball Player of the Year three times. A member of three conference championship and three NCAA play-off teams, Chris was a leader on the court and has gone on in his post-CMS career to be a leader in his community.
Looking forward to 2022-23, Coach Ken Scalmanini and his long-time staff are excited for the next version of Stags basketball. The returning members from the 2021-22 team and the highly anticipated recruiting class bring continued high expectations for another successful season.
As always, we thank you for your support of CMS Stags basketball. Please watch for new developments on the Stags Basketball webpage. In addition, the website has archives of great CMS Stags basketball memories along with bringing all games for streaming and live stats.