CLAREMONT, Ca. – The Pomona-Pitzer men's basketball team earned a 79-51 victory over the La Verne Leopards on Thursday night. The Sagehens were led by Brendan Mora and Ty Bergman as both tallied double-doubles with Mora ending the night with 20 points and 10 rebound while Bergman had 11 points and 12 rebounds. The Sagehens also saw big contributions from Joe Cookson (15pts), Pete Boyle (12 pts), and Owen Avdalovic (10 reb.). Pomona-Pitzer shot 42.2% from the field and 30.4% from downtown while holding the Leopards to 29.0% from the field and 37.5% from three. Overall, the Sagehens outrebounded La Verne an impress 56-26 on the night with 43 defensive rebounds. With the win, the Sagehens are now 6-4 and 2-0 in the conference and will be back in action on Dec. 29 when they host Haverford at 5:00 p.m.

The Sagehens dominated the first half, holding the Leopards scoreless for the first six minutes of the contest while scoring 12 points of their own with baskets from Ty Bergman, Brendan Mora, Joe Cookson, and Hayden Moser. La Verne was able to hit back-to-back three pointers to cut the lead to 12-6 but the Sagehens maintained their lead with an 8-7 back and forth battle, capped off by a three from Peyton Mullarkey to make it 20-13. Mullarkey's three sparked a quick 7-0 run as Pete Boyle and Mullarkey both made layups while Ty Bergman hit a three, putting the Sagehens up 27-13. La Verne continued to struggle offensively down the stretch as the Sagehens worked their way to a 34-19 lead before Joe Cookson added four more points to make it 38-22, giving Pomona-Pitzer their largest lead of the first half. The Sagehens also controlled the boards in the first half with 33 rebounds to La Verne's 11.

La Verne came out of the halftime break with a three-pointer 13 seconds into the half but the Sagehens responded with an 8-2 run to extend their lead to 47-27. Pomona-Pitzer continued to build a commanding lead as they worked their way to a 24-point advantage at 61-37 with buckets from Hayden Moser, Ty Bergman, Brendan Mora, Peyton Mullarkey, Owen Avdalovic, and John King. The Leopards cut the deficit to 20 points with a short 4-0 run but Joe Cookson and John King both made baskets to put the Sagehens up 64-41 with 10:07 left to play. From there, the Sagehens allowed just 10 more points in the contest from the Leopards while picking up 15 more of their own to take the victory 79-51. The last 15 points for Pomona-Pitzer featured three-pointers from Pete Boyle and Brendan Mora and two free throws from Nathan Paik to seal the 28-point win over La Verne.