Panthers clinch first SCIAC crown (tie) in school history

ORANGE, Calif. – The Chapman University men's basketball team clinched a share of its first-ever SCIAC championship, defeating visiting Caltech 86-64 at the Hutton Sports Center on Tuesday night – the final night of the regular season. The Panthers wind up in a three-way tie for first place in the standings with Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Cal Lutheran University, but own tiebreakers against both schools and will be the No. 1 seed in the SCIAC Postseason Tournament which begins on Friday.

Chapman (21-4 overall, 12-4 SCIAC) will host the No. 4 seed Whittier College at the Hutton Center on Friday night in the first round of the conference tournament. The game is scheduled to tipoff at 7:30 p.m. The winner of the tournament will earn the SCIAC's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.

The Panthers led Caltech (4-21 overall, 3-13 SCIAC) nearly the entire game. But the lead never felt comfortable until late in the second half when Chapman began to pull away, stretching an eight-point lead into a 24-point spread over the final 10 minutes. A three-pointer by senior G Colin Zavrsnick with 8:28 to go gave the Panthers a 13-point lead, and then another three by Zavrsnick three and a half minutes later pushed the advantage to 17 and Chapman never looked back.

On a night when Chapman honored six graduating seniors, including all five members of Tuesday's starting lineup, it was senior G Taylor Hamasaki who scored a game-high 20 points and added three assists. Zavrsnick finished with 17 points, seven rebounds and three steals. Both players reached the 1,000 career point milestone this season and rank among the top scoring leaders (Zavrsnick: 8th 1,362, Hamasaki: 11th 1,297) in Chapman history.

Also honored on 'Senior Night', twins Jordan Young and Justin Young scored 11 and six points, respectively and PG Garrett James pitched in six assists and a pair of steals.

Chapman, which began the season on a 16-game winning streak, spent most of the season ranked among the nation's top-25 but has fallen out this week. The Panthers are entering the SCIAC Tournament as winners of five of their last seven games. On Friday, they'll seek to avenge one of those recent losses, a 16-point home defeat at the hands of its first-round opponent: Whittier.

by Doug Aiken
Sports Information Director

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