Closing Stretch Leads CMS Men's Basketball Over Chapman 82-79

CLAREMONT, Calif. - With the score tied 68-68 and 2:05 to play, Josh Angle, Caelan Jones and Will Householter knocked down pressure three-pointers on three straight possessions to lead the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's basketball team to an 82-79 win over Chapman on Saturday at Roberts Pavilion.

The win improves CMS to 16-5 overall and 10-2 in the SCIAC, and keeps the Stags in a tight three-way battle with Cal Lutheran (10-1) and Pomona-Pitzer (10-2), which also won league games on Saturday. Chapman, which handed CMS one of its two conference losses back on Dec. 2, falls to 12-9 overall and 6-6 in league play. 

CMS led by as many as 13 in the first half, but found itself down 45-39 early in the second half, before Angle and Householter hit consecutive threes to tie it, in a bit of foreshadowing for how the final two minutes would go. 

With the score tied 64-64 and 4:06 to go, Matt Meredith hit a jumper in the paint off a Jones feed and Angle converted a driving lay-up to put the Stags ahead 68-64, but Chapman knotted it up with 2:20 to play on a Murphy Caffo jumper. 

Angle then responded by hitting a tough three-pointer from the top of the key with two defenders flying at him, swishing it from straight away to put CMS ahead to stay 71-68. Jake Heberle made two foul shots for Chapman from the left wing, but Jones converted a three from the left wing under heavy defensive pressure as well to make it 74-70 CMS with 1:34 to go. 

The Stags earned a stop, with Rhett Carter securing a defensive rebound in traffic, and with the shot clock winding down, Angle found an open Householter on the left wing, and he buried a dagger with 53 seconds to go to put CMS ahead 77-70. Chapman got it down to four (78-74) with 17 seconds left, but Householter went 4-4 at the line down the stretch and the Panthers buried a 30-foot three-pointer at the buzzer that merely cut the final deficit in half and made it an 82-79 final.

CMS led 19-7 early after an Angle three-pointer, and led by as many as 13 in the first half, before the Panthers cut it down to 33-30 on a rainbow three-pointer at the buzzer from Heberle. 

Angle finished with 22 point son 7-13 shooting (4-6 from three), and added four rebounds, four assists and five steals. Carter had 16 points, Householter had 14, and Jones added nine points and a team-high eight rebounds. 

CMS will be back in action this week for two big road games, traveling to Redlands on Wednesday and then coming back to Claremont on Saturday to face Pomona-Pitzer for a 2 p.m. contest.