CLAREMONT, CA. – The Pomona-Pitzer Men's Basketball team blew out the No. 14 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags in the first Sixth Street Rivalry held at Roberts Pavilion by the score of 80-61 on Tuesday night.
Season Impact: With the win, the Sagehens snap their three game losing streak and improve to 11-9 overall and 7-4 in conference play. CMS drops its first conference loss of the season and fall to 17-2 overall and 10-1 in SCIAC play.
The Sagehens were led by sophomore Corbin Koch who tallied a game-high 26 points in the game with 24 of them coming in the first half alone. Sophomore Daniel Rosenbaum added 10 points with six rebounds and freshman Micah Elan chipped in with 10 points and seven rebounds
The Stags were led by Michael Scarlett who had a team-high 16 points and Jack Ely came off of the bench with 10.
The Sagehens came out of the gate firing from beyond the arc as they connected on their first three three-point attempts to take a 9-2 lead. The Stags battled back and cut the lead down to 13-9 at the first media timeout with 14:29 left in the first.
Pomona-Pitzer took their largest lead of the first half at 13 points as Koch drained his fourth three-pointer of the first half to extend the lead to 34-21 with 4:10 left until halftime. At one point in the first half Koch tallied 24 points and the entire CMS team had 25.
Pomona-Pitzer stayed hot from the floor as they shot 66.7% in the first half from the field and held a 42-29 lead heading into the half.
Koch came out in the second half and picked up two quick fouls that sent the game's leading scoring to the bench with four fouls. After Koch's exit, the Sagehens' supporting cast picked up the pace and held the Stags offense quiet as CMS could not find any shot to fall on the Pomona-Pitzer defense.
The Sagehens rallied for another big run midway through the second half and took a commanding 19-point lead at 59-40 with 8:30 remaining.
The Stags offense fell off in the second half as they missed shot after shot. After shooting over 50% from the field in the first half, CMS shot just 32% in the second half with most of those makes coming after the Sagehens built an insurmountable lead.
After Koch's first half show, the Sagehens were able to hold off the Stags in the second half and spoil the first ever Sixth Street Rivalry at Roberts Pavilion.
Up Next: The Sagehens continue SCIAC play as they next travel to Chapman on Thursday, February 9th at 7:00 p.m.