Photo: Bob Paz

CLAREMONT, Calif. (Feb. 8, 2020) – The Caltech men's basketball team had its three-game SCIAC winning streak snapped at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges (9-3 SCIAC) on Saturday afternoon.

The Beavers came into Saturday's contest eager to showcase the improvements they made since the previous meeting with the Stags and opened the game on an 8-2 run. Three different players scored over this five-minute stretch with freshman center and reigning SCIAC Defensive Player of the Week Pavlos Stavrinides (Nicosia, Cyprus / The English School of Nicosia) throwing his weight around the paint with a tip-in and dunk. However, the CMS offense began to take form and kept the Beavers at a manageable, but not insurmountable difference for the remainder of the game. The odds began to mount against Caltech after two starters left the game within the first 10 minutes of the game.

"I'm just so proud of our team," Head Coach Dr. Oliver Eslinger said. "We were so locked in and ready to play and we started out hot just like we anticipated. We play hard and play within the rules of the game. When two starters were knocked out early, our team responded with toughness and resiliency. It's not about the opponent or what the opposition does. It's about our group of young men and how we believe in one another."

Juniors Spencer Schneider (Houston, Texas / Clearbrook) and Marcus Gee (Santa Monica, Calif. / Santa Monica) carried the Caltech offense with 15 and 13 points respectively. Schneider also led the way on the glass with eight rebounds. Caltech also got significant minutes from junior Calvin Huh (Fort Lee, N.J. / Bergen Tech) and sophomore Noah Barnes (Springfield, Va. / Jefferson), the former of which had four points and five rebounds while the latter player had six points in a game that took on a physical, defensive tone early on.

Despite the setback, the Beavers (6-5 SCIAC) left Claremont in good playoff standing, just one game behind the University of Redlands and Occidental College (7-4 SCIAC). Eslinger and the Beavers will now hope to steal a key road win when they travel to Pomona-Pitzer Colleges (9-3 SCIAC) on Wednesday, Feb. 12. The Sagehens will enter this week's game coming off a loss to Redlands.

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