CMS Outlasts Occidental to Open SCIAC Schedule

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags opened up the conference portion of the 2007-08 season with a 55-42 victory over the Occidental Tigers Saturday night. The Stags came out firing on all cylinders, opening the game on a 10-0 run. CMS held the Tigers scoreless until the 12:29 mark in the first half.

Senior Dan Winterbottom (Tempe, Ariz.) dropped 14 points and seven rebounds to lead the Stags. Junior Austin Soldner (Southlake, Texas [pictured]) added 14 points on five-for-eight shooting, and freshman Chris Blees (Carmichael) contributed 10 points and nine rebounds to the CMS effort.

Connor Whitman paced the Tigers with 12 points and four rebounds. Whitman was four-for-five from the charity stripe.

In a low-scoring first half, the Stags took a 20-15 lead into the locker room.

The Tigers opened the second half with a 10-0 run of their own to take their first lead at 25-22 with 15:53 remaining in the game.

Facing a five-point deficit, the Stags responded with a 15-0 run midway through the second half to take a 41-31 lead with 7:44 left in the period. The Tigers would never get closer than six points for the rest of the game.

The run began when sophomore Ben Bergsma (Chandler, Ariz.) hit a three-pointer to cut the Tigers' lead to two with 11:59 remaining.  Blees hit two free throws and added another two points to retake the lead for good. Freshman Beau Heidrich (Woodside) and Soldner each knocked down shots from beyond the arc to extend the lead. Winterbottom added two points to give the Stags a 10-point lead.

CMS shot 44.2 percent for the game, including 35.7% from three-point range. The Stags held the Tigers to a 28 percent field goal percentage.