In a battle that featured 10 lead changes and four ties, the University of Redlands men's basketball team knocked off Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, 68-66, in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Semifinal on Friday night inside Currier Gym.
Much like the entirety of the game, the first several minutes were tightly contested as senior guard Brittian Foster (Long Beach, CA) stepped behind the arc for a triple that made it 10-8 with 13:42 to go in the first half. On the next possession, the Bulldogs forced a turnover and made the Stags pay with a layup from senior forward David Menary (Grass Valley, CA) to extend the lead to four. However, CMS answered with a timely three-pointer to stop the Bulldogs' run at the 13-minute mark.
A few minutes later, an isolation three-pointer from first-year forward Griffin Barker (Kirkland, WA) gave Redlands the spark it needed, giving the Bulldogs a 20-16 lead. On the next play, sophomore forward Kameron Wright (Fontana, CA) elevated to swat the ball away at the rim. Seconds later, Menary hit Wright with a give-and-go in transition and finished with a forceful two-handed jam to ignite a packed Currier crowd to give the Bulldogs their largest lead of the game at 22-16 with 9:32 to go.
Unfortunately, the Stags crawled back to pull ahead, 23-22, just over three minutes later. CMS held Redlands off for several minutes until Foster connected with Wright for a layup to come back to within one point. Foster hustled down on defense and knocked the ball free, which led him to be fouled on his fast break. After converting both of his attempts, junior guard Jack Roggin (Toluca Lake, CA) closed the half with a tough mid-range jumper to send the Bulldogs into the break with a 32-29 advantage.
The Stags came out of the locker room hot with a pair of three-pointers to take a 35-32 lead less than two minutes into the second half. Menary made sure their lead did not last long by draining four consecutive foul shots to pull ahead 36-35 with 16:50 on the clock.
Over the next several minutes, the Maroon and Gray maintained control, but the Stags would not let the lead grow by more than four points. Finally, Menary helped create some distance for the Bulldogs with a powerful and-one to extend their lead to 58-53 with 7:53 left in the game.
The Redlands defense was hard at work deep into the game with a big chase-down-block in transition by Menary. A couple minutes later, junior forward Parker Landolf (Alamo, CA) stole the ball which led to him being fouled with the Bulldogs in possession of a 58-55 lead with just over five minutes remaining.
Each time the Stags came knocking on the door in the closing minutes, the Bulldogs answered with clutch plays. When CMS came to within one possession, Barker answered with four consecutive points to push the lead back to 65-59 with 2:09 to go.
After Barkers shot fell to put the Bulldogs up 68-63, the Stags converted a three-point play to come to within two at 66-68 with 59 ticks remaining.
It came down to the final possession of the game, where the Maroon and Gray relied on their pesky defense to force a CMS miss on the game-winning shot to secure a shot at the SCIAC title tomorrow.
Barker led the team with a game-high 21 points on an efficient 9-for-13 shooting. He also added five rebounds and a steal. Menary took advantage of his opportunities from the charity stripe with a 9-for-9 clip, en route to a 19-point performance.
Redlands (20-6, 12-4 SCIAC) advances to the SCIAC Championship game at top-seeded Pomona-Pitzer Colleges on Saturday, February 29, at 7 p.m.
