By Ben Levine, PI '14

CLAREMONT, CA - The Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens won a close game Wednesday night over the Caltech Beavers (4-17, 0- 10 SCIAC), narrowly escaping becoming a part of history. The Sagehens extended the Beaver's conference losing streak to 307 after a hard-fought second half.
 
After a solid first half, the Sagehens went into halftime up 33-26. Standout freshman guard Todd Cramer felt Evan Zanhiser's (JR, Mercer Island, WA) defense all night, starting the game 0-of-4 from the floor before finishing the game just 2-of-7 for 4 points. Pomona-Pitzer strayed from their vaunted 2-3 defense, attempting to exploit the mismatches in man-to-man. For the most part, man-to-man worked in the Sagehen's favor; only Ryan Elmquist scored over 10 points for the Beavers. However, Elmquist ripped the Sagehens all night for 28 points on 10-of-19 shooting and snagged 10 rebounds. Jake Klewer (FR Tuscon, AZ) had a monster game for the Sagehens to counter Elmquist, notching a double-double with 21 points and 10 rebounds.

Coming out of halftime, the Beavers outscored the Sagehens 17-8 to take a 43-41 lead with 10 minutes remaining. In a tense game that saw no double-digit leads, Pomona-Pitzer answered the Caltech run by answering with fearless shooting from Xavyr Moss (SO, Federal Way, WA), who finished with 18 points.

In the waning moments of the game, the Beavers had to resort to fouling Sagehens in order to stop the clock. Putting the Sagehens on line proved to be detrimental to the Beaver hopes of snapping the streak, as the Sagehens made 16 of their 21 free throws in the 6-point victory over Caltech. The Sagehens return to action on Saturday at home against Occidental (11-10 overall. 5-5 SCIAC). Tipoff will be at around 7:00PM (30 minutes after the conclusion of the women's basketball game).