Austyn Masuno Earns SCIAC Defensive Player of the Week Honor for CMS Women's Basketball

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Junior forward Austyn Masuno earned the SCIAC Women's Basketball Defensive Player of the Week honor for games through Sunday, Jan. 9, the league office announced today.

In the only game of the week for the Athenas, Masuno stopped two pivotal late possessions in the final minute to help CMS come away with a 74-69 road win over Occidental. After CMS took a one-point lead with 1:01 to go, Masuno had a block on the ensuing Occidental possession and triggered a fast break which resulted in a basket to go ahead by three with 45 seconds to go.

After Oxy called a timeout to try to close the three-point gap, the Tigers drove to the basket for the second straight time, but Masuno protected the rim again, resulting in another change of possession and helping CMS seal the win. She finished the game with two blocks, a steal and six defensive rebounds.

CMS will be back in action this evening when it tries to build off the momentum from Saturday night's win with a home game against Whittier at 7 p.m. The last time the Athenas and Poets played, it was in the 2020 SCIAC Semifinals, which CMS won to advance to its seventh straight league championship game.