Fans from across the 5Cs piled into Roberts Pavilion on Friday, Feb. 23 to see a high stakes rendition of Sixth Street basketball that would decide whether the Pomona-Pitzer (P-P) Sagehens or the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) Stags would get to represent the Claremont Colleges at the SCIAC Finals.
The Stags managed to come out on top in a nail biting, one shot game, winning 74-71 on their home turf at Roberts Pavilion. Students from across the 5Cs showed up for this special Sixth Street matchup, packing the stands in their team’s colors and keeping energy high with constant chants and cheers.
Heading into the game, the two teams were pretty evenly matched. CMS held a 12-3 record in SCIAC play and a 18-6 record overall, while P-P stood at a 12-4 record in the SCIAC and 19-6 overall, earning them the second and third seeds, respectively. The teams faced off twice this season and traded games, each team earning close wins at their home court.
Tensions were high going into the Sixth Street showdown, with the winner of the SCIAC championship getting an automatic bid into the NCAA DIII men’s basketball tournament, a coveted prize both team’s fell short of last season.
The intensity of the game matched the stakes, with the ball going back and forth until the Stags eventually began to control the game and took the lead with a three from Caelan Jones CG ’25, which put them up 14-12. They then went on a 10-5 run until Charlie Treene PO ’26 made a three pointer to cut CMS’ lead to 20-24.
With 8:15 left in the first half, P-P got a defensive rebound while down 23-27, which Jasper Hedin PO ’27 carried down the court and delivered with accuracy from beyond the arc, cutting CMS’ lead to one at 26-27.
After that, Joe Cookson PO ’25 put the Sagehens up 31-29 with a three pointer with 5:43 left in the half. The score teetered back and forth for the next few minutes, until Ty Bergman PO ’25 had an offensive rebound into a layup which put P-P head 35-33. From then, the Stags trailed the Sagehens and went into the half down 41-35.
After the game, Jones reflected on how the Stags changed their mentality at the half.
“We just studied the game plan [and] stayed aggressive and we just tried to attack them.” Jones said. “We just tried to turn that up in the second half and just continued to take it play by play. We knew it was going to be a grind out game.”
The pace of the second half matched the first with the lead flying from one side to the other. However, CMS was able to cut P-P’s lead to four with a series of three free throws by Will Householter CM ’27. Despite this, P-P held on to the lead until a series of Sagehen mistakes. A three point miss by Treene followed by a foul on a three pointer by Jones brought P-P’s lead down to 56-54 with 11:14 left in the second half.
CMS capitalized on this momentum and promptly took a 57-56 lead with a three pointer by Josh Angle CG ’24 with 10:19 left in the second half. However, the Stags weren’t able to hold onto it and two free throws by Cookson put the Sagehens back up 58-57. The game continued to go back and forth until a decisive layup by Angle that brought CMS up 69-67 with 2:10 left in the second half.
From there, P-P would not regain the lead. A missed layup by Cookson with 20 seconds remaining forced the Sagehens to foul Jones, resulting in two more free throws that extended CMS’ lead to 74-69. In the final seconds, Pete Boyle PZ ’25 managed to sink a layup with 6 seconds remaining which pulled the Sagehens within three. However, a last ditch three point from Cookson fell short at the buzzer and CMS secured their spot in the SCIAC final.
Jones said the feeling was electric for the Stags, noting the infrequency of wins such as this one.
“It’s awesome,” Jones said. “As a basketball player, you live for games like this. I wish everyday could be this game, [but I’m] acting like I don’t get another one tomorrow.”
The south side of Sixth Street had a different reaction to the game results. Hedin said that narrowly missing a chance to compete for the SCIAC title was disappointing.
“I know our teammates wanted to win as much as we’ve ever done, it’s a great group of people, so we brought it to the game, which I think was evident,” Hedin said.
Boyle reflected ahead on how the loss will affect P-P’s plans heading into next season.
“It’s hard to look ahead right now but we have a lot of returners,” Boyle said. “This one stings and it’s going to last. We are going to think about it all off-season, so that is going to bring energy into the next season.”
For Jones and the rest of CMS, their win secured them a berth in the SCIAC final against Cal Lutheran, who won their semi-final match on Friday against Chapman 85-76. Jones looked forward to what the team needs to do to play well in the final.
“Cal Lu is an amazing team, we know they play hard,” Jones said. “We are going to have to play a lot harder than we did today, so we’ll watch their film and figure it out.”
The two teams faced off for the final on Saturday, Feb. 24 at 7 p.m. on the road at Gilbert Arena. CMS beat the Kingsmen on their homecourt 61-55, with Angle leading the Stags in points with 17. This is both CMS’ first SCIAC title and first bid to the NCAA tournament since 2018. The Stags continue on, facing St. Thomas in the first round of the tournament on March 1.
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