CMS Women's Basketball Opens 2019-20 Season on Saturday against Puget Sound at Roberts Pavilion
CLAREMONT, Calif. -- The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Women's basketball team opens the 2019-20 season with high hopes as the favorite to win the SCIAC after clinching its sixth-consecutive title during a record 24-win season a year ago. The Athenas host the Puget Sound Loggers at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 16 at Roberts Pavilion to open a campaign with renewed energy under first-year Head Coach Chanel Murchison.
For only the second time in the history of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC), a team has won six consecutive conference championships, and that team is the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Athenas. In SCIAC play, the Athenas finished at 15-1 last year for the third time during its span of six-straight SCIAC titles. There also were years of 14-2, 13-3, and the perfect 16-0 season in which CMS became the only SCIAC team to go undefeated since the schedule had increased from 10 games.
Over the past six seasons, CMS has gone 88-8 in SCIAC games, for a winning percentage of 92%. The team also won 24 games three times over the same six seasons, setting the CMS wins record in 2014 and then tying it in 2015 and again in 2019. The overall winning percentage has been 82% over the same time. Expanding the scope of this history, the Athenas have won more games - conference and overall - since they joined the SCIAC in 1977 than any other SCIAC team. 2018-19 marked the 12th conference title for CMS which also is the high-water mark for the SCIAC over the past 35 years.
The Athenas were picked to finish first in the 2019-20 SCIAC Women's basketball preseason poll as voted on by the league's member head coaches on Oct. 31. The Athenas hauled in 77 points in the preseason vote highlighted by six first-place votes (see poll results at bottom). After just coming up short of an NCAA Tournament bid, falling by two points to Pomona-Pitzer in the conference tournament championship game, the Athenas have a renewed sense of what it will take to get to the 'Big Dance' this season.
CMS graduated three seniors (Corinne Bogle, Teeana Cotangco, and Ellery Koelker-Wolfe) from a team that tied the best-ever win total in program history at 24 victories. The Athenas return an experience-heavy squad with Maya Love (Sr.), Lauren Longo (Sr.), Lindsey Cleary (Sr.), and Gloria Bates (Sr.) highlighting a core of four experienced scorers and leaders to help a transition into a new season with a new leader from the sidelines.
Love has recorded 794 career-points and is 206 away from 1,000 going into another season where she is expected to play in every game and help lead the team on the floor. A First-Team All-SCIAC selection from a year ago, it marked the second straight year of being awarded by the conference as one of the top players in the SCIAC. Love led the team in points per game, averaging just shy of 13 points per contest last season. She scored a team-leading 20 points in the SCIAC Tournament Championship game against Pomona-Pitzer. The senior from Denver, Colorado will be relied heavily upon not only for her scoring acumen but her calmness on the court and ability as a leader.
Longo, along with junior Maezelle Millan. will bring some stability to the guard position with a pair of experienced floor generals. Longo appeared in 27 games off the bench a season ago, averaging 15.6 minutes per game and 3.4 points per contest. She has a solid touch from three-point land and can light up the scoreboard from beyond the arc, scoring a season-high 11 points (3-5 3FG) against Caltech on Feb. 9 of last season. The senior from Issaquah, Washington was also a defensive stopper, recording 21 steals over 422 minutes and grabbed 53 rebounds last season.
Cleary was also a First-Team All-SCIAC selection last season marking her first-career honor. The senior from Kirkland, Washington averaged 7.4 points per game, shot 48.5% from the field, grabbed 4.3 rebounds per game and scored a season-high 19 points at La Verne on Jan. 12, along with a season-high eight rebounds in that same game. Cleary scored in double-digits 11 times in 27 starts last season and grabbed 115 total rebounds. She has earned SCIAC All-Academic Team honors over the past two seasons and has played in over 18 games each of her last three years.
Cleary on the upcoming season, "We're really excited for a new season. The energy level is just different from last year. After the win over Westmont, it felt like we won one of the bigger games from last season. I think the team chemistry is really good and the energy we give each other is really positive and that is helping us learn faster." Cleary continued about new Head Coach Chanel Murchison, "She really works to help us to focus on each other in an encouraging sense so that the coaches are able to teach us all of the offenses and new defenses. I think because we are all learning together we're on the same page and the same level as teammates and we're able to focus on building positive energy during the practice between each other and let the coaches handle the learning side."
"We're focused on everyone being accountable on the defensive side. We have a big responsibility at the post because we are focused on being consistent at every practice and every game." The senior forward/center described what it will take from each player to accomplish their goals of getting back to the NCAA Tournament. "It starts outside of practice individually, we're really focused on individual goals and bringing those together. Mental training and making sure that we have the types of practices that we want to have to help us get back to where we want to be which is the tourney."
Bates was named SCIAC Defensive Player of the Week three times a season ago and set a career-high with five blocked shots to help CMS to a 78-55 win over Pomona-Pitzer on Jan. 24. She was also dangerous from the field offensively, scoring a season-high 23 points off the bench against Redlands on Jan. 26. Bates, along with the other seniors, were key contributors that helped the Athenas rattle off 20-straight wins from Dec. 5 to Feb. 21 last season. Expect to see her back in the rotation this season with an ability to break a defender down off the dribble and create her own high-percentage shot in the lane.
Murchison spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach with William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, and will take the reigns as the fifth head coach in the history of CMS Women's basketball. She has six years of coaching experience since her 2013 graduation from William & Mary, where she was a student-athlete with the Tribe Women's basketball program, spending four seasons on the coaching staff at John Carroll in University Heights, Ohio, the first two as a graduate assistant before earning an assistant coach position in June of 2015.
"It was great to go back and work at my alma mater and see how the players have developed over the years but what I really learned there (William & Mary) was to understand the flow of the game how to carry that through 40 minutes," she said. "Also, the season is a little bit longer at that level but just being able to work with the players all year round gives me a good idea of player development and what the whole picture looks like."
Murchison continued about the excitement level after an exhibition victory over Westmont and the team coming together. "We're excited, but when you go back and look at the film there's a whole lot of work to be done. We need to dig into the details of what we're doing, our foundation is laid, but now it's time to build the house."
Murchison feels that the senior class will be key to this season's results. "I think it's important to lean on that senior leadership group," she said. "We have two great captains in Longo and Love and that whole senior class has a lot of experience on court, so really leaning on that and allowing them to lead the team, but also challenging them that what they have talked about wanting in terms of SCIAC Championships and attending NCAA Tournaments, we're going to have to turn the corner because they have fallen short."
As an assistant at John Carroll from 2013-17, Murchison helped the Blue Streaks to their first two NCAA Tournament appearances in program history. Her teams compiled a 64-41 record over her four seasons, including a pair of 22-win campaigns, and had nine players earn all-league honors, including one Player of the Year and one Rookie of the Year.
Murchison will have plenty of experience to work with, out of the junior class of this Athenas basketball team, as Millan (Jr.), Kate Parrish (Jr.), Kelly Keene (Jr.), and Katelynn Nguyen (Jr.) make up a four-person core of contributors. All four junior class members played in over 20 games last year and have had key moments in an Athena uniform to help a team that finished on the cusp of an NCAA Tournament berth and is looking to get over the hump and back into the tourney for the first time since the 2016-2017 season.
Millan appeared in 26 games, making 10 starts. The guard out of Fontana, California shot 32.7% from the field making 32 field goals including one three-pointer and as a pass-first guard dished out 48 total assists on the season. A leader on and off the floor, she is one of the first players in the gym to work on her shot.
Parrish appeared in 25 games a season ago and at moments looked unstoppable in the paint, using her 6-2 height to her advantage. The junior from Bellevue, Washington shot 46.3% from the field, averaging 5.9 rebounds per game and grabbing 148 total boards which were third on the team. She led the team with 31 blocks over 14.6 minutes per game. Parrish posted three double-doubles and scored a season-high 18 points on Dec. 9 against UC Santa Cruz, and collected a career-high 14 rebounds on Feb. 16 at Cal Lutheran.
Keene appeared in 22 games off the bench last season, averaging 7.2 minutes per game and 1.9 points per game. She has shown the ability to knock down the three-point shot as a spot shooter from the perimeter, and scored a season-high 11 points against La Verne on Feb. 11. The junior from Seattle, Washington should see a rise in not only minutes on the floor, but also point production this season with added growth in responsibilities.
Nguyen appeared in 21 games as a point guard off the bench shooting 35.0% from the field and scoring a season-high six points at Occidental on Feb. 13. The junior from San Marcos, California brings pace to her game that could make her a formidable offensive threat in the coming season.
Coach Murchison also served as the academic and career center liaison for William & Mary, organizing student-athlete academic schedules and assisting in career development endeavors. She is big on relationships and building trust on and off the court and her ability to do that as the CMS Women's basketball head coach will be a big part of the continued success going forward. Murchison has a pair of assistant coaches in her corner that she has worked with for quite some time, building a solidified message from the bench during games and in practice during ongoing drills.
Assistant Matthew Layman comes to the Athenas from Purdue University of the Big Ten Conference where he worked the last four years, including the last two as director of player development. Sherrie Session worked closely with coach Murchison on the basketball staff at John Carroll University for two years and has also continued her playing career professionally for the last six years since graduation from the University of Rhode Island in 2013. Session currently plays for the Woodville Warriors of the Premier League in Australia, while also serving as their Division 2 U16 girls coach and the club's welfare officer.
The coaching staff will have plenty of talent to develop with five sophomores returning to an Athenas squad that will have a new pressing mindset defensively this season that will require strong physical fitness and the contribution from all members of the roster. The Athenas displayed a trap-press defense in its home exhibition 58-39 victory over Westmont on Nov. 5. In that matchup, the Athenas used all 13 players with every member of the squad playing at least five minutes in the contest. Sophomores Elizabeth Howell-Egan, Jocelyn Song, Jane Baldwin, Kellie Okamura, and Flora Durgerian contributed off the bench during the matchup with Westmont and will provide much-needed minutes during the two-game a week grind during the season.
Howell-Egan played in 11 games off the bench a season ago registering 30 minutes for the season and scoring 12 points making her first-career basket on Nov. 23 against Dallas. Song appeared in 10 games for the Athenas and the 5-8 guard scored two points. Baldwin played in the most games of the then first-year class as she averaged 4.5 minutes over 16 contests off the bench. Okamura appeared in 13 games off the bench and shot 38.5% from the field, knocking down her first-career three-pointer against The College of New Jersey on Nov. 23. Durgerian has physicality and height at 5-11 for the Brighton, England product that played in 14 games off the bench and brings an ability to work either from the perimeter or the inside with her game.
Finally, rounding out the 2019-20 Athenas roster are two First-Years, Austyn Masuno from Long Beach, California and Jacey Carter from Scottsdale, Arizona. Masuno is a 6-0 post player that showed calmness and poise during the exhibition against Westmont as she knocked down two free-throws to finish with two points. Carter scored nine points, all from three-point range, after shooting 3-for-5 from the field over 10 minutes off the bench while showing a nice touch from the three-point line and confidence with the offense and ball in her hands.
The 2019-20 season opens with home games against Northwest Conference rivals University of Puget Sound and Willamette University, to go along with the first-ever game against Emory University from Atlanta and the University Athletic Association. Those will be followed by the annual Wells Classic with Nebraska Wesleyan and Gustavus Adolphus coming to Claremont and Roberts Pavilion.
A week later, CMS returns to Washington University St. Louis for the McWilliams Classic. The non-conference schedule ends with an invite to the prestigious Division III Las Vegas Classic and games versus St. Vincent and DeSales. And of course, the always exciting SCIAC season kicks off with games against Pomona-Pitzer and Chapman in December before the remaining 14 conference games startup at the beginning of the New Year.
Check the CMS Women's basketball schedule for times, stats, video link and results of each contest.
2019-20 SCIAC Women's Basketball Preseason Poll
1. CMS (6) - 77 points
2. Pomona-Pitzer (3) - 73 points
3. Chapman - 62 points
4. Redlands - 53 points
5. Whittier - 43 points
6. La Verne - 34 points
7. Cal Lutheran - 31 points
8. Occidental - 20 points
9. Caltech - 11 points
"We Want... We Will... Go Athenas!"