Claremont, Calif. – The Pomona-Pitzer Men's Basketball team jumped out to a 16-1 lead to start the game, but Claremont-Mudd-Scripps used an 18-1 run late to capture a 65-54 win on Wednesday evening in front of 1747 fans at Voelkel Gymnasium in the latest installment of the inter-consortium rivalry of the Claremont Colleges.

With the win, CMS improves to 17-6 overall and 13-2 in the SCIAC, remaining one game behind Redlands, who it meets on Saturday for a potential share of the regular season title. Pomona-Pitzer falls to 13-9 overall and 8-6 in the SCIAC, into a third-place tie with Whittier.

However, the Sagehens did get some good news on the night as Cal Lutheran lost to Redlands, which means that Pomona-Pitzer's magic number is one to qualify for a postseason bid with two games left. A win over Occidental on Saturday or a win over Whittier on Tuesday would be enough to get into the SCIAC Tournament (the top four teams qualify), or one Cal Lutheran loss would be enough as well.

Sophomore guard Kyle McAndrews (Seattle, Wash.) led Pomona-Pitzer with a game-high 19 points, but was the only Sagehen in double figures. Junior guard Remy Pinson had 13 points and 10 rebounds for CMS, including back-to-back three-pointers during the pivotal late run which gave the Stags the lead for good. It was Pinson's coast-to-coast lay-up with 0.6 seconds left that won last season's meeting at Voelkel Gymnasium 57-55.

Junior forward John Weiss (Cleveland, Ohio) split two shots at the line with 10:27 left to give Pomona-Pitzer a 46-40 lead, but the Sagehens would score only one point over the next 8:30 as the Stags roared ahead 58-47. Kevin Sullivan started the comeback with a three-pointer, and after Jake Klewer (Tucson, Ariz.) made a foul shot with 7:54 left to make the score 47-43, the next 15 points went to CMS.

Jack Grodahl scored down low off an offensive rebound and putback with 7:06 to go, and Pinson then hit a long three-pointer from straight away to give CMS its first lead of the game with 6:05 left. After a Sagehen miss, Pinson hit another one from the left wing to push the lead to four, and Grodahl was then fouled in the act of shooting a three-pointer and made all three to suddenly push the lead to seven with 4:35 left.

Jason Harrington and Pinson both went 2-for-2 at the line to cap off the 15-0 run, which was finally ended when sophomore guard Michael Cohen (Tarzana, Calif.) scored on a fast break with 1:56 to go, but the Sagehens were unable to threaten late.

It was a tough end to a game that couldn't have started any better for Pomona-Pitzer. McAndrews buried a three-pointer on the first possession, Klewer hit a lay-up and Cohen nailed a three-pointer to make the score 8-0 just 1:32 into the game. McAndrews then got to the rim for back-to-back lay-ups to make it 12-0, and after a Cody Mivshek foul shot, McAndrews hit another lay-up and then assisted on one from sophomore guard Adrian Brandon (Seattle, Wash.) to make the score 16-1 at the 14:51 mark.

The lead then stayed between 10-13 points for almost the entire first half, before Grodahl hit two foul shots to make it 30-21 with 2:17 left in the opening stanza. Grodahl added a three-pointer with 53 seconds left to cut it to six, and the teams traded baskets in the final minute to make the score 33-27 at the break, as close as CMS had come since its bad start.

Two Chris Rama foul shots brought CMS within 33-31 early in the second half, before a quick spurt from McAndrews gave the Sagehens some temporary breathing room again. He hit a tough lay-up as he was fouled, and then hit another difficult reverse, before burying a contested 19-footer to make the score 45-36 with 11:46 to go, but it would be almost nine minutes before Pomona-Pitzer would make another field goal.

The Sagehens shot 48.3 percent in the first half (14-29), but just 8-30 (26.7 percent) in the second half. The Stags also had 35 of their 65 points from the bench, led by 17 from Grodahl and 10 from Jason Harrington.

Pomona-Pitzer will be back in action on Saturday when it travels to Occidental, where it can secure a postseason bid with a win.