Box Score CLAREMONT, Ca. – The Pomona-Pitzer Men's Basketball team advanced to the SCIAC Tournament Final after their 90-83 win over Cal Lutheran on Friday night in the SCIAC Semifinal.
Season Impact: With the win, the Sagehens advance to the SCIAC Tournament Champions and improve to 20-4 overall to notch their third-straight 20-win season and their third-straight appearance in the SCIAC Tournament Championship having won the past two.
The Sagehens were led by Brendan Mora who tallied a double-double with 26 points and 14 rebounds. Matthew Eberle had 19 points and went 3-4 from three with the biggest three pointer of the night coming late in the second half. Peyton Mullarkey came off the bench with 16 points and six assists while Ty Bergman added 13 bench points and eight rebounds.
The Sagehens and Kingsmen had a huge night on offense with both teams over 40% from the field. The Sagehens hit on 49.1% of their shots from the field and an incredible 68.4% from three while Cal Lutheran hit 44.8% of their shots and 27.8% from three. The Kingsmen had the advantage in the paint 30-20, but the Sagehens outrebounded Cal Lutheran 40-23 and the bench outscored the Kingsmen 29-15.
The Kingsmen started out with the hot shooting from beyond the arc early as they hit on their first two shots from three to take a 6-0 lead. The Sagehens got their offense going and took the lead over and after a Mullarkey layup took a 15-10 lead with seven minutes gone in the first half.
The Sagehens got their lead up over 10 points at 30-18 after an Eberle three with 7:38 to go and got it up to as much as 15 at 38-23 with just under five minutes before the half. The Sagehens were able to keep their lead heading into the break and despite some last second free-throws by Cal Lutheran, the Sagehens led 48-35 at halftime.
Pomona-Pitzer kept its lead around 10 points for the early stages of the second half and even got their largest lead of the game at 17 points after a Mora three made it 63-46 with 12:42 left to play. After facing their largest deficit of the night, the Kingsmen started to get the three-ball going and began to chip away at the Sagehen lead. The Kingsmen cut it down inside 10 at 70-62 with seven minutes left to play and came all the way back to tie the game at 76-76 with 2:24 left to go.
After a pair of made free-throws by Joe Cookson the Sagehens held a two-point lead until the Kingsmen nailed a three to take their first lead since 8-5 with 15:30 left to go in the first half. The Sagehens and Kingsmen both answered down the stretch and had a tied game at 82-82 with 1:10 left to go. With the Sagehens needing a big basket, it was Eberle who came up huge with a big three to give the Sagehens an 85-82 lead with 35 seconds to play. The Sagehen defense came up with a big stop and the Sagehens closed the game out at the line to advance to their third consecutive SCIAC Tournament Championship game
Up Next: The Sagehens will next host Chapman in the SCIAC Tournament Championship on Sunday, February 27th at 2;00 p.m. at Roberts Pavilion.
