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Flora Durgerian had a career-high 22 points (photo by Julian Rivera-Williams)
Flora Durgerian had a career-high 22 points (photo by Julian Rivera-Williams)

Dominant Third Quarter Leads CMS Women's Basketball to 78-60 Win over Oxy

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Occidental women's basketball team had a 7-0 run in the final minute of the first quarter to take a two-point lead at the half, but Claremont-Mudd-Scripps counter-punched with a dominant 25-10 third quarter and went to capture a 78-60 win over the Tigers on Saturday evening at Roberts Pavilion.

The win was the fifth in the last six games for the Athenas, who had a four-game winning streak snapped on Wednesday, as they improve to 9-10 overall and 6-4 in the SCIAC with the victory. Occidental slides to 7-10 overall and 2-8 in the league with the loss. 

Austyn Masuno (24 points) and Flora Durgerian (22 points) each set new career highs in scoring, with Masuno surpassing her previous high by two, set earlier this year, and Dugerian passing her previous high of 16 set as a sophomore. The Athenas also overcame a spectacular effort from Occidental's Toni Thompson, who finished with 36 points on 14-21 shooting to keep her team in the game. 

Thompson, in fact, had all seven of the points in the 7-0 run to close out the first half and give Occidental a 32-30 lead at the break. CMS, though, came out of the locker room with the first eight points to take the lead for good. Dugerian had two foul shots, Jacey Carter dove on the floor for a steal to lead to a go-ahead basket from Ava Grey, Masuno hit two foul shots and Jocelyn Song hit a pull-up jumper to put the Athenas ahead 38-32. 

It was still a 43-39 game late in the third, when CMS used a 9-0 run as Durgerian knocked down a three, Masuno scored four straight points and Durgerian hit two foul shots. Durgerian then closed out the quarter with a buzzer-beating three-pointer to stretch the lead to 55-42. Masuno started the fourth with a jumper, Durgerian had a driving lay-up and CMS was able to cruise the rest of the way. 

Grace Florendo was also in double figures for CMS with 10 points off the bench. CMS will be back in action on Wednesday when it hosts La Verne for a 7 p.m. contest at Roberts Pavilion.