A season of marked improvement came to an end for the University of La Verne as the squad dropped a 68-62 decision to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in the semifinal round of the SCIAC Men's Postseason Basketball Tournament Friday night at Ducey Gymnasium.
The Leopards (13-13) faced a double-digit deficit before getting to within four points late but could not get any closer as CMS (16-9) advances to the tournament final against the University of Redlands on Saturday evening.
La Verne trailed 37-26 at the half and faced a 58-44 deficit with 7:14 remaining in the second half before scoring 10 unanswered points to slice the Stags' lead to 58-54 in the final minutes. A pair of three-pointers by Jeremy Lay and Trevor Woodland along with two straight field goals from Jake Veith on a jumper and a layup pulled the Leos within four points with 5:02 remaining.
CMS stretched the advantage to 64-56 but La Verne would again closed the gap on a Woodland jumper to close the gap to 64-60 with 1:47 remaining. But a layup from Joseph Anderson along with two free throws from Remy Pinson helped seal the win for CMS.
The Leopards shot just 28% (7-25) from the field in the first half but recovered to make 50% (13-26) of their shots after intermission. Conversely, CMS hit on 52.4% of its field goal attempts in the opening 20 minutes.
CMS held a 33-32 edge in rebounding while three-point shooting was nearly identical with the Stags making 5 of 13 treys compared to a 5-of-12 effort for the Leos from beyond the arc.
Four La Verne players reached double figures in scoring led by Austin Napolitano who collected 15 points. Woodland finished with 13 points while Alex Wolpe and Jonathan Bastos each totaled 10 points. Wolpe grabbed 10 rebounds to post a double-double.
Anderson led CMS with 16 points with teammate Tyler Gaffaney adding 10 points.
