CMS Women's Basketball Pulls Away for 75-57 Win over Cal Lutheran

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's basketball team closed the first half on a 20-7 run to turn an eight-point deficit into a 40-35 lead, and clamped down on defense in the second half to outscore Cal Lutheran by that same 20-7 spread in the third quarter and pull away for a 75-57 win on Wednesday evening at Roberts Pavilion.

With the win, CMS improves to 5-9 overall and gets back level in the SCIAC at 3-3, while Cal Lutheran slips to 2-7 overall and 0-4 in league play. 

Jacey Carter led CMS with 15 points, hitting six of her eight shots from the floor (including 3-4 from three), while Austyn Masuno added 13 points, and Flora Durgerian had 12 without missing a shot, knocking down both field goal attempts from three and going 6-6 at the line. 

Carter jump-started the CMS run in the second quarter with a three-pointer, and ended it with another three-pointer just before the halftime buzzer, as the Athenas turned a 28-20 deficit into a 40-35 lead in a span of just under six minutes. Kayla Ishibashi scored the next five points to tie the score 28-28, and after Cal Lutheran scored a bucket, Durgerian gave CMS the lead for good with a three-pointer.

Cal Lutheran was still within 37-35 in the final moments of the half, but Carter knocked down a three-pointer off a pass from Masuno with seven seconds left and the Athenas took a five-point lead into halftime. From there, they turned up the defense, holding Cal Lutheran to just seven points on 2-18 shooting in the third as they stretched their lead to 60-42 through three quarters.  

In fact, after Cal Lutheran hit a three-pointer on its first possession of the second half to make the score 42-38, the Athenas went on a 13-0 run to seal it, capped by another Carter three-pointer off a Sadie Heckman feed. 

CMS finished the day with strong shooting splits, knocking down half its shots from the floor (24-48) and from three (5-10) while adding a 22-27 performance at the line (81.5 percent). Masuno and Gwen Gilmore each had four blocked shots for the Athenas, helping them hold Cal Lutheran to just 31.1 percent shooting (19-61). 

CMS will be back in action on Saturday when it travels to Chapman for a 4 p.m. contest.