Men's basketball defeats CMS 71-61 to advance to SCIAC Tournament final

ORANGE, Calif. – The Chapman University men's basketball team never trailed on the way to a 71-61 win over fourth-seeded Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in Friday's SCIAC semifinal at the Hutton Sports Center. Freshman Cam Haslam had 21 points to lead the Panthers to the win.

The win gives Chapman its third straight trip to the SCIAC Tournament championship game. The Panthers will face third-seeded Redlands, which upset Whittier in the final seconds on Friday at Whittier. Tipoff will be at 7:30 p.m. in the Hutton Sports Center.

The Panthers opened up with a 13-4 run over Claremont in the first four minutes of the game. CMS and Chapman then went shot-for-shot over the next five minutes, allowing the Panthers to maintain their nine point lead of 17-8 at the ten-minute mark.

The Panthers then went on another lengthy 11-2 run to take the lead 28-12 with 7:51 left, sparked by a pair of layups by sophomore James Taylor. The Panthers finished the half leading 37-25 with Taylor posting 10 first-half points for Chapman.

The Stags and Panthers went shot-for-shot in the second half, scoring eight points each over the first six-plus minutes to move the score to 44-33 at the 13:44 minute mark. After an offensive fall call, CMS' Riley Hall was given a technical foul that sparked a 10-2 run over the next three minutes for Chapman. Sophomore Rob Nelsen hit 1-of-2 free throws to start it off. Junior Josh Cohan converted a three-point play during the run to really swing momentum in the home team's favor.

The lead reached its pinnacle at the nine minute mark when the Panthers had worked their way to an 18 point lead over the Stags at 59-41. Junior James Griffin knocked down the first of his two threes in the second half, followed by a Haslam jumper to fuel the end of the run.

The Stags came back from a timeout at the eight minute mark fired up posting a 10-4 run to chip at the Panthers lead to 63-51 with ten minutes left at the clock. A three by Stag's senior Jason Harrington helped the CMS hit a 10-3 run to cut the Panthers lead all the way down to 66-61 with 43 seconds left. However, Haslam hit four key free-throws in the final minute of the game to ice the 71-61 victory.

Chapman will host Redlands tomorrow in the SCIAC Postseason Tournament Championship in the Hutton Sports Center at 7:30 p.m.

by Raquel Rinauro and Steven Olveda
Sports Information Staff 

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