Claremont, Calif. - Junior guard Kyle McAndrews had 26 points, including his 1000th career point early in the contest, but it was not enough as third-seeded Chapman earned a 69-54 win over Pomona-Pitzer on Friday evening in the SCIAC Postseason Tournament semifinals at Voelkel Gymnasium.

Pomona-Pitzer falls to 18-8 overall on the year with the loss, while Chapman improves to 17-9 and will host the SCIAC finals on Saturday night against Cal Lutheran, which upset top-seeded CMS on the road on Friday night.

Chapman built a big lead early against a Pomona-Pitzer team that came out sluggish, as the Panthers led 22-9 midway through the first half. However, junior guard Adrian Brandon hit a three-pointer as the shot clock expired in the final minute of the first half to pull Pomona-Pitzer within 30-23 at the break.

The Sagehens chipped away at the lead in the second half, and finally went ahead with a 9-0 run. The spurt began with a three-pointer from junior guard Michael Cohen and ended with two straight McAndrews jump shots, making the score 46-45 with 6:29 to go, Pomona-Pitzer's first lead since the score was 2-0.

However, Chapman came right back with a four-point play after junior guard Taylor Hamasaki drove and was fouled, and John Joyce was able to get the offensive rebounds off the missed foul shots, resulting in a lay-up from Nick Dragovich. McAndrews came back with another jumper to cut Chapman's lead to 49-48, but Chapman then went on a 9-1 run to push the lead up to 58-49 with 3:13 to go.

Hamasaki had the key basket during the spurt as he hit a three-pointer with 4:26 to go to double the Panthers lead to 54-48. After a Pomona-Pitzer foul shot, Colin Zavrsnick drove baseline for a lay-up to push the lead to seven, and Hamasaki hit two foul shots to extend the lead to nine and Pomona-Pitzer was unable to mount a comeback down the stretch.

McAndrews reached the 1000-point plateau on a foul shot 6:30 into the first half and ended the game with 1,023 in his three-year career. Cohen was the only other Sagehen to reach double figures, though, with 10 points, while Chapman got good balance from Hamasaki with 18 points, Joyce with 16 (on 8-9 shooting) and Zavrsnick with 14, all of which came in the second half, when he shot 6-7 after an 0-7 first half.

Pomona-Pitzer will await the NCAA selections to find out if they will get an at-large bid, while Chapman and Cal Lutheran will play for the SCIAC's automatic berth tomorrow.