CMS Falls To Pomona-Pitzer 56-54

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags lost a hard-fought game to their cross-campus rivals Saturday night. The visiting Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens held on in the closing seconds for a 56-54 victory in Ducey Gymnasium.

The Stags were led by senior Craig Borengasser's double-double, dropping 12 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. Freshman Chris Blees also grabbed 10 rebounds to go along with nine points on the evening. The Stags out-rebounded Pomona-Pitzer, 32-20.

The Sagehens were paced by Justin Sexton's 14 points.

CMS came out firing, taking an early 7-2 lead three minutes into the contest. But the Sagehens found their shot and tied the score at 10 with just less than 11 minutes remaining in the first half. The Stags closed out the first half with an 11-1 run to take a nine-point lead into the locker room.

Pomona-Pitzer opened the second half with a 15-4 outburst to take a 34-31 lead with 13:24 to go in the game. Overall, the game saw seven ties and four lead changes.

Trailing by six points with 6:51 remaining in the game, Blees drove the lane to drop in a layup, cutting the lead to four points. After a missed basket at the other end, senior Dan Winterbottom dropped in a jumper to bring the Stags within two.

Senior Phil Kaestle tied the game at 46 with a tip-in at the 5:04 mark in the second half. The teams traded baskets and tied the score at 51 with less than three minutes remaining.

Pomona-Pitzer's David Brown put the Sagehens back up by three with a shot from the corner with 1:20  left on the clock.

Facing a three-point deficit with less than ten seconds on the clock, junior Austin Soldner threw up an errant three-point attempt, and was fouled on the play. Soldner hit the first free throw to cut the lead to two, but missed the following two shots.

The Stags dropped to 8-6 on the season and 2-1 in SCIAC action. CMS will face Cal Lutheran on Wednesday at home.

-CMS-