Box Score CLAREMONT, CA. – The Pomona-Pitzer Men's Basketball team notched their second-straight SCIAC win with a 71-58 victory over Caltech on Wednesday night at Voelkel Gymnasium.
Season Impact: With the win, the Sagehens improve to 11-5 overall and 6-1 in conference play this season.
The Sagehens were led by Brendan Mora who scored a game-high 21 points and nine rebounds. Peyton Mullarkey provided a big spark off the bench with 14 points while Joe Cookson taliled 13 and Owen Avdolovic came away with 10.
Pomona-Pitzer outshot the Beavers from the field at 44.1% to Caltech's 34, but the two teams had nearly identical three-point totals with the Sagehens at 40.7% and Caltech at 40.6%, but the Sagehen defense forced the Beavers to turn the ball over 17 times and scored 17 points off of turnovers.
It was a tale of two halves for the Beavers from beyond the arc as they shot the lights out in the first half against Pomona-Pitzer. The Sagehens started out with a 10-4 lead early on in the opening half, but Caltech started to get its offense going and took a 13-12 lead after a made three with 12:46 to go before halftime. Caltech took a 24-17 lead after some good consecutive three-point shooting, but the Sagehens closed the gap and tied the game shortly after at 24-24 with 6:04 to play in the first half. The Beavers shot incredibly well from three in the first half and despite hitting on 50% of their shots from three, the Sagehens only trailed 35-34 at the break.
Pomona-Pitzer got its offense going in the second half as the Caltech shooters cooled off after the halftime break. The Sagehens started the half on a 13-3 run aided by some strong defense that only gave up three points in the first nine minutes of the second half. Caltech attempted to close the gap late in the second half and made it 55-47 with 7:11 left to play, but the Sagehens were too much to handle for Caltech down the stretch as Pomona-Pitzer's big second half secured their sixth SCIAC win of the season.
Up Next: The Sagehens will next hop across the street as they face CMS for the Sixth Street Rivalry on Saturday, January 21st at 4:00 p.m.
