A hard fought effort by the University of La Verne fell short as Claremont-Mudd-Scripps would prevail over the Leopards by a final of 76-68 in SCIAC men's basketball action Saturday evening at Ducey Gymnasium in Claremont.
Down 15 points, La Verne mounted a late rally to get within six points, but the Stags held firm to turn back the Leopards comeback effort.
The Leopards (8-14, 6-7 SCIAC) raced out to an 11-3 lead in the first half, but the Stags went on a 10-2 run to knot the game at 13 with 9:20 left before intermission. CMS would lead by as many as eight points, but a three-pointer from Theo DeBerry and a jumper from Jake Vieth pulled the Leos to within three at 34-31 heading into the break.
CMS (17-5, 12-2 SCIAC) controlled the early stages of the second half, building a 44-35 advantage with 15:10 remaining. Vieth would counter with a three-pointer and a short jumper get La Verne to within four points at 44-40. The Leopards would get as close as three points on a free throw from Paul Titchener to narrow the gap to 45-42.
A 12-5 run by the Stags would boost their lead to double digits, as the run was capped by a Cody Mivshek jumper to go up 57-47 with 8:23 left. CMS would continue its momentum and lead by as many as 15 points as two free throws from Mivshek allowed the home team to seize a 71-56 advantage.
Both teams shot 50% from the field in the second half with the Leopards making 13 of their 26 attempts while the Stags connected on 12 of their 24 shots. For the game, CMS finished 23-50 (46%) compared to 23-56 (41.1%) for the Leopards. CMS out-rebounded La Verne by a 37-31 margin.
Vieth led the Leos in scoring with 22 points including a 4-5 effort from three-point range. Alex Wolpe added 11 points and eight rebounds. Mivshek made 10 of his 13 free throw attempts as he led CMS with a game-high 23 points.
With the defeat, La Verne dropped into a three-way tie for fifth place in the conference standings with Chapman and Cal Lutheran. The Leopards resume SCIAC play Wednesday night as it takes on Occidental College in a 7:30 pm tip-off.
