CMS Women's Basketball Celebrates Senior Day, Falls to Chapman in Close Battle

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's basketball team honored seniors Mary Markaryan and Sadie Heckman prior to the contest, and battled deep into the fourth quarter with a Chapman team that came in on a hot streak, but came up just short in a 76-67 decision at Roberts Pavilion on Wednesday.

CMS, which also honored senior team manager Shaliya Heard prior to the game, slips to 4-17 overall and 2-11 in the SCIAC with the loss. Chapman wins its fourth in a row, including victories over SCIAC co-leaders Occidental and Cal Lutheran, and improves to 12-8 and 6-7 in league play. 

Tanya Ghai led CMS for the second straight game with 26 points. She came into this week with a career-high of 20, and then dropped 35 in a three-point loss against Occidental on Wednesday. She had 26 on 8-12 shooting against Chapman on Saturday, while being face-guarded and being chased by double-teams.

Markaryan finished with 13 points, six rebounds and four assists, and Heckman had nine pointrs on 4-6 shooting to go with seven rebounds. 

Ghai beat the buzzer at the end of the first half to pull the Athenas within single digits (42-33) at the break. That momentum carried into the second half as Syona Mandyam scored a lay-up on a feed from Markaryan, and Ghai followed with a three to cut it to 42-38. 

The Athenas pulled even at 56-56 on a Heckman lay-up with 50 seconds left in the third, but Zoe Zurasky beat the buzzer this time to give Chapman a 60-57 lead heading into the fourth.

Maile Nakaji hit three three-pointers for the first nine Panther points of the fourth, the third putting Chapman ahead 69-62 with 4:04 to play. Markaryan had a three-point play to get CMS within 73-65, but that was as close as the Athenas could come as Chapman held on for the win. 

Shanna Brown (17) and Layla Woods (16) combined for 33 of Chapman's 40 bench points on the day. 

CMS will be back in action on Wednesday when it hosts Redlands for a 7 p.m. contest.