CLAREMONT – Khaneal Mason and Kendall McClain combined to score 20 points off the bench to keep the University of La Verne men's basketball team in the game, but the Leopards could not quite catch first-place Claremont-Mudd-Scripps as they lost 73-61 on Saturday night at the Ducey Gymnasium.
La Verne drops to 7-7 in SCIAC play and 10-13 overall. CMS improves to 17-5 overall and 12-1 in the conference.
The Leopards hung tough until around the 14:44 mark when Mason knocked down a three to bring the Leos within 43-39. But CMS caught fire and just could not miss the rest of the way. The Stags shot a staggering 9 of 12 shots to close out the game and pulled away from the Leopards.
CMS shot 66.7 percent in the second half and 53.2 for the game.
La Verne was within striking distance all game but whenever the Leopards got close, the Stags found ways to keep the Leos at bay.
After falling in an early 8-1 hole, Weston Newell and Niall Harrison led the charge to get the Leopards to within 10-9. But CMS answered with a couple of unanswered layups to give itself a cushion and eventually took a nine-point into the break.
And after CMS' Tyler Gaffaney hit a 3-pointer early in the second half increase the lead to 41-29, La Verne made another run. See and Harrison each made a layup, and Mason hit two threes to trim the deficit to four, but that was as close as the Leopards would get.
McClain helped La Verne stay within the game with a couple of big 3-pointers and by attacking the basket. The freshman finished with 11 points.
Harrison scored 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Ronn See pitched in 12 and Mason added eight.
Gaffaney had a game-high 20 points for the Stags and Shelby Lane had nine rebounds.
Despite the loss, the Leopards still have a chance to make the four-team SCIAC Postseason Tournament. La Verne has two games left against Pomona-Pitzer (11-3 SCIAC) and Chapman (8-6) and if it wins out, it could be involved in a tiebreaker situation with the Panthers.
La Verne hosts Pomona-Pitzer on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
