Claremont, Calif. (January 23, 2012) — Last week saw one of the largest crowds in the history of Voelkel Gymnasium witness one of the most dramatic finishes in the facility’s history. Both Saghens Men’s Basketball Team and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps came into the Sixth Street Showdown with perfect 3-0 records in the SCIAC. CMS was also 14-0 overall and ranked No. 12 in the nation, and there was a distinct buzz around the five colleges about the big match-up on the first week of classes for the spring semester.
The game featured a wild, roller-coaster finish which left the Sagehens on the short end of a 57-55 defeat. The Sagehens trailed by four points with 27 seconds left, but came back to tie game with six seconds left, before CMS went the length of the court to win the game just before the final buzzer. Po Grant ’13 helped the Sagehens cause by shooting 2-2 from three-point territory and adding three rebounds.
Pitzer-Pomona bounced back from the loss with a 64-57 win over La Verne on Saturday, while CMS lost in double overtime at Whittier, creating a three-way tie for first place in the SCIAC. The Sagehens will travel to Whittier on Wednesday in a battle between two of the three first place teams, and then travel to Occidental on Saturday.
The Women’s Basketball team will host its version of the Sixth Street Showdown against CMS on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. after dropping a couple of tough conference games last week. Ruthie Shapiro ’15 matched her career high of 13 points in both games, a 58-53 loss at Whittier and an 86-76 home defeat to La Verne. Emi Hashizume ’14 also came back from injury this week to score 12 points against La Verne.
The Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving teams each picked up convincing wins over Caltech on Saturday, as the women improved to 4-1 in SCIAC duals and the men improved to 3-2.
On the men’s side, Vince Giannotti ’12 helped the Sagehens by contributing in both winning relays – the medley relay and the freestyle, and also coming in third in the 100 free. Mari Pettibone ’15 was second in the 100-yard butterfly and Jackie Lynch ’12 was third in the 50-yard backstroke. Avery Barron ’15 and Jake Weber ’14 both earned points for the Sagehens in the diving competition, with Weber finishing second in both the one-meter and the three-meter on the men’s side and Barron finishing third on the women’s side.
The Swimming and Diving teams host their final dual of the season at Haldeman Pool on Saturday when La Verne visits for a 10:30 a.m. meet.
The spring sports also get underway this week as Friday will be opening day for the Sagehens Baseball and Softball teams. The softball team will host La Sierra in a doubleheader, beginning at 12:30 p.m., while the baseball team plays a single game against Westmont at 2 p.m.
