PASADENA, Calif. (Feb. 4, 2023) – Putting an exclamation point on the end of an action-packed Saturday for the Beavers, the Caltech men's basketball team emerged victorious after a nail-biter against the Cal Lutheran Kingsmen.
 
A star-studded cast of Caltech Men's Basketball alumni took the court in the morning as part of Caltech Basketball Alumni Day, followed by other afternoon events and culminating in this SCIAC faceoff against an incredibly physical and athletic opponent.
 
Senior Pavlos Stavrinides tied his season high of 14 rebounds for the second time in as many games, completing the double-double with 18 points and a pair of assists.
 
After conceding the first basket of the game to the Kingsmen, Caltech rallied with a seven-point run sparked by a Noah Hicks, who hit a three-pointer followed by a jumper in the paint. Hicks than dished to Stavrinides for an emphatic slam dunk that ignited the packed Braun Gymnasium crowd. Cal Lutheran battled back to within a point of the Beavers, but field goals by Kyle McGraw and Ben Juarez briefly preserved the lead.
 
The visitors took control over the next four minutes, stringing together a 12-0 run before Caltech responded with another Stavrinides jam and a three ball by Chase Pagon, cutting the Beavers' deficit to just two points at 18-16. The two teams would trade buckets for the rest of the half, with Pagon scoring last and sending the Beavers into the break no further behind the Kingsmen, 25-23.
 
Stavrinides drained the Beavers' first two baskets of the second half, first tying the game and then bringing Caltech within two again at 29-27, but that came amid a 10-point surge by Cal Lutheran spanning just over two and a half minutes, peaking with an eight-point lead at 35-27. Both teams then struggled to find the hoop for a couple minutes until Jack Pierson came off the bench to nail a game-changing three-pointer that sparked a 10-point Caltech run, capped by Hicks retaking the lead with a layup to make it 36-35 at the 12:27 mark.
 
"We weathered the storm," Head Coach Dr. Oliver Eslinger said. "The guys stuck together and focused on the next play, especially after Cal Lutheran came out and scored 10 points in the first three minutes after halftime."
 
The back-and-forth affair continued into the end of regulation with a total of three ties and 11 lead changes between the two teams, with the last tie coming at the 2:30 mark after Pagon erased Cal Lutheran's lead with a good free throw. He then dropped in a layup for a two-point lead and responded to a Kingsman three-pointer with a triple of his own, pulling the Beavers ahead 53-51 with a minute and a half to go.
 
In the end, it came down to what Eslinger called "elite defense" and solid free throw shooting; the Beavers' last four points came from the stripe as the team finished 13-for-19 in the category and negated Cal Lutheran's desperate fouling strategy in the waning seconds.
 
As a team, the Beavers out-rebounded the Kingsmen 42-20, including 14 offensive rebounds that Caltech converted for 15 points compared to six second-chance points by Cal Lutheran.
 
Pagon matched Stavrinides' 18 points and grabbed seven rebounds. McGraw complemented his 10 rebounds with a pair of steals, a blocked shot and an assist.
 
Next up for the Beavers is a road game at Whittier College on Saturday, Feb. 11 at 4 p.m.