Stags Fall to Pirates In First Round Of NCAA Tournament

On a cold night in Spokane, the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's basketball team fell to Whitworth 81-63 in the first round of the NCAA Division III Tournament.  CMS finished the season at 21-7 while Whitworth improved to 23-6 and will face Northwest Conference foe University of Puget Sound in the second round. The Stags trailed by two at halftime, but were unable to keep the pace in the second half. Austin Soldner (SR, Southlake, TX) led the Stags with 19 points and Michael Bagby (JR, Coupeville, WA) added 13.

The Pirates started the game strong in front of a sold out crowd, hitting three straight three pointers, but Jason Toney (JR, Yorba Linda) hit a jumper and Soldner made two baskets to close within 9-7 into a timeout. The Stags and Pirates would go back and forth, but with ten minutes to go the Stags would score eleven points in four minutes to take a 31-23 lead, its biggest of the game. Whitworth came right back, scoring 19 points in the final six minutes of the half to take a 42-40 lead into halftime. Soldner had 15 points in the first half, including two three-pointers and a finish and foul at the basket.

The Stags offensive output in the first half was far higher than expected, but the Stags also conceded 42 points in 20 minutes.  CMS, for example, only allowed Cal Lutheran 18 points at halftime in the SCIAC tournament semifinal and held Pomona-Pitzer to 44 points for the whole game in the championship. Last night, Whitworth's big men were excellent at getting position and scoring around the basket, but when the Stags tried to double down with a perimeter defender they risked giving up a three-point shot to one of several good shooters.

The Pirates went on a 16-1 run early in the second half to take a 60-44 lead with 11:27 to play and after that the Stags never got closer than 13 points. The two teams had similar rebounding and turnover numbers, but the Pirates simply put the ball in the basket more efficiently than the Stags in the second half.  CMS made only one of nine three-point shots. Every Pirates starter made more than half of his shots with guard Ross Nakamura leading the team with 22 points.

In his last collegiate game, Soldner had his highest offensive output for the season, finishing with 19 points on 6-10 shooting. Bagby made three of five three-point shots to finish with 13 points. Patrick Lacey (SO, Orangevale) grabbed seven rebounds.