Panther men return to SCIAC Tourney final
ORANGE, Calif. – The Chapman University men's basketball advanced to the SCIAC Postseason Tournament championship game with an 83-66 win over visiting Whittier College at the Hutton Sports Center on Friday night. The Panthers shot nearly 67 percent from the field in the second half and avenged a 16-point loss to the Poets just two weeks earlier on the same floor.
The semifinal win puts Chapman (22-4) back in the title game for the second year in a row and it will host Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (19-6) on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. with the SCIAC's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament on the line. The Stags advanced with a 77-51 win over Cal Lutheran University on Friday night, leaving just Chapman and Claremont remaining from a three-way first-place regular season tie.
Saturday night was a career-night for Chapman senior G Taylor Hamasaki, who put on an offensive showcase for the Panthers en route to a career-high 36 points on 14-for-24 shooting, including a trio of three-pointers. Hamasaki scored 21 points alone in the first half, staking the Panthers to a slim two-point halftime lead 35-33.
The other half of Chapman's senior dynamic duo, G Colin Zavrsnick scored 18 points, including 4 of 7 from three-point range, and pitched in six assists. In fact, Zavrsnick and Hamasaki combined to score the first 31 points in the game for the Panthers as they took their biggest lead of the period at 31-21 with 5:40 to go. But Whittier (as it would most of the night) responded with a 12-4 run to cut the deficit to two at the break.
Just when Chapman looked like it might pull away in the second half, Whittier (15-11) again clawed back getting back-to-back three-pointers from Michael Alvarez and Jacob Contreras to make it a two-point game with 11:27 to go. But that was as close as the Poets would get. Up by five with 6:04 to go, the Panthers went on an 18-4 run over the next five-plus minutes to win going away. They made 18 of 27 shots in the second half (66.7 percent) and scored 48 points in the period. Both teams shot over 53 percent (Whittier 53.8, Chapman 57.4) in the game.
Whittier G Eric Jennings paced the Poets with 10 of his team-high 19 points in the second half. He finished 9 of 14 shooting and grabbed a game-high eight rebounds and added four assists.
Chapman swept a pair of regular season games against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps this season: a 73-68 win at home and a 65-62 overtime win on the road. Both teams enter the SCIAC Tournament final having won four in a row. The Panthers are the defending tournament champions, having defeated Cal Lutheran by 28 points in the SCIAC final last March.
by Doug Aiken
Sports Information Director
Become a fan of Chapman Athletics on Facebook
Follow Chapman Athletics on Twitter @ChapmanSports
Post your #PantherPic to Instagram @ChapmanSports
#Chaptown