2024-25 – another season full of record-breaking performances!
20th post-season appearance!
8th SCIAC tournament championship!
Coming off an NCAA sweet-16 appearance in 2023-24, it could be easy to say 2024-25 was disappointing as seasons go, but the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags basketball team would hear nothing of that. 2024-25 was another campaign full of new records and highlights to keep the video makers busy.
The Stags broke the 20-win barrier for the third year in a row and for the 15th time in their history, finishing the year at 20-8 overall and 12-4 in the always exciting Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. CMS then proceeded to win its two post-season conference tournament games on the road to capture its eighth conference tournament championship (in the 17 years of the tournament's existence). This propelled the Stags to the NCAA regional championships for the second year in a row and for the tenth time since 2002.
The Stags created high energy throughout the season as they went 10-2 at their home court Roberts Pavilion, the premier Division III arena. 2024-25 was the 27th consecutive winning season for CMS. No other conference school can make that claim. Indeed, no other SCIAC member has won more games (conference or overall) than CMS since 1959-60 when the Stags entered the conference.
CMS in winning its eighth post-season conference tournament championship has won more SCIAC tournament titles than any other conference team. And from the inception of the conference tournament in 2008, CMS is the only SCIAC team to be in the tournament every year.
The 2024-25 roster was made up of four graduate students using their final year of eligibility because of the year lost due to COVID, two seniors, three juniors, six sophomores, and three freshmen. They all contributed to the success the Stags enjoyed this season.
Caelan Jones (Gr., CGU, Los Angeles) joined the Stags last year and once again started at the wing position. He continued where he left off from 2023-24 as he was the team's second leading scorer and rebounder.
AJ Rohosy (Gr., CGU, San Anselmo) came to CMS and earned a starting spot at center and left a big mark with team-leading numbers in points scored (21.3) rebounds (10.5) and blocked shots (27).
Neil Owens (Gr., CGU, Pasadena) another first-year player for the Stags led the team as the starting point guard while scoring 11.3 points per game and shooting 40.1 percent on 3-point attempts.
Robert Power (Gr., CGU, Pacific Palisades) came to CMS for his first year as a Stag and came off the bench as a guard and showed both offensive (3.2 points per game) and defensive (20 steals) prowess.
Matt Meredith (Sr., CMC, Orinda), concluded his CMS career as team co-captain with consistent play and floor leadership. He scored 4.2 points per game with 4,0 rebounds per game and 76% free throw shooting.
Stu McCallum (Sr., CMC, Lexington, MA) was the other team captain and for good reason as he mentored new players into the Stags basketball program teaching the CMS way. He leaves CMS as a four-year letterwinner and knowing that he was a respected team leader and two-time Kampe Hustle Award winner.
James Frye (Jr., CMC, Orinda) was one of the starting small forwards for CMS for the second year in a row. At 5.9 points per game and 4.1 rebounds per game, he contributed well to the CMS attack.
Cahal Connolly (Jr., CMC, Oakland) was first off the bench at the center position and once again was a strong part of the CMS middle defense with 2.6 rebounds per game and 10 blocked shots.
Luke Jacobson (Jr., CMC, Glendora) was a reserve player at the forward and post spots contributing to the Stags' success.
Reid Jones (So., CMC, Carmichael) came back from a good freshman year to have an even better sophomore campaign moving into a starting role at guard and leading the CMS defense while also passing off for a team-leading 85 assists.
Will Householter (So., CMC, Manhattan Beach) returned for his second season with the Stags and continued to excel with 9.0 points per game and shooting 90.1 percent from the free throw line in conference games.
Joey Kennedy (So., CMC, San Francisco) made his debut for CMS this season as a forward and rose to the challenge averaging 4.3 points and 4.6 rebounds per game.
Brady Karich (Fr., CMC, Surfside, CA) came off the bench provided strong relief at the point guard spot with 35 assists and 8 steals.
Luke Rinaldi (So., CMC, Dover, MA) at guard,
Mike O'Brien (So., HMC, Beverly, MA) at center, and
Jonah Heimann (So., HMC, Princeton, NJ) at forward all returned for their sophomore seasons and were part of the 2024-25 success story.
Nathan Noronha (Fr., HMC, San Jose) and
Cole Boake (Fr., CMC, San Francisco) were reserve guards who came off the bench and performed in the CMS tradition when called upon by Coach Scalmanini.
The season opened with three wins over Northwest Conference teams: Linfield, Pacific Lutheran, and Whitman. Then the Stags moved into the Thanksgiving weekend for the David Wells Classic. This is the highly-touted Division III tournament hosted by CMS that brings outstanding academic schools that have respected basketball programs in their own rights to Claremont for a weekend of basketball at its finest. This was the case once again in 2025 and fans watched the Stags sweep Southwestern (TX) and Trinity (TX).
CMS closed out the first semester with one more non-conference win – this time over St. Mary's (MN).
The exciting SCIAC schedule where any team can win on any given night started before winter break with home wins over La Verne and Whittier. As the new year began, CMS traversed the SCIAC highway with season sweeps over Occidental, Caltech, La Verne, and Chapman. The team split with Redlands and Whittier – two other teams that qualified for the 2024 conference tournament. Two of the more exciting wins of the SCIAC season came over rival Pomona-Pitzer. The first game was a double-overtime thriller that the Stags came away with the 72-71 win and then at Roberts Pavilion it was all CMS 90-77.
Heading into the 2024 conference tournament, the Stags had to open on the road at Redlands against a Bulldog team that they had split with during the regular conference season. CMS roared to a 20-point halftime leads and then needed every one of those 20 points as the Stags held on for a nailbiter 89-87 win. This earned them a rematch with Cal Lutheran in the tournament finals in Thousand Oaks. In an exciting game that went wire to wire, CMS scored with 8 seconds left and then survived two Kingsmen shot attempts to capture the win 72-71 and its eighth SCIAC tournament championship.
In winning the conference tournament, the Stags earned an automatic bid into the NCAA championships. Unlike the 2024 NCAA regional tournament that was on the west coast, this year CMS faced traveling cross country to go to New Jersey to take on Ramapo College. In a back-and-forth game, the Stags saw their exciting season come to an end in a double overtime loss to the host school 89-84.
The conference coaches had met before the conference tournament to select the all-conference teams.
AJ Rohosy was chosen first team All-SCIAC while
Caelan Jones and
Neil Owens were named to the second team.
The National Association of Basketball Coaches then released the All-District and All-American teams. Rohosy made appearances on both teams with first team All-District and second team All-American selections. The All-Academic teams came out a week later and Rohosy was honored on those teams as well with being named to the Academic All-District team and being honored as first team Academic All-American.
The season wrapped up with the team's post-season banquet. Sophomore
Reid Jones was chosen as the team's best defensive player for the second year in a row.
Joey Kennedy was honored as the most improved player and
AJ Rohosy was voted the team's most valuable player.
Stu McCallum was honored for the second straight year as the recipient of the Kampe Hustle Award. This is the award named in memory of former Stags all-SCIAC player Chris Kampe (CMC '85) who passed away from cancer in 1993. Chris was a team leader who inspired his teammates to play with the highest level of determination and exemplary effort.
Another team award that is named after a CMS alumnus is the Bob Sunshine Captain Award in honor (and now memory) of former Stags captain Bob Sunshine who graduated in 1961 and who was the program's first captain back in 1958-59. Mr. Sunshine also has the distinction as the only person ever who was at both the first game and the last game played in Ducey Gymnasium. This year's team captains were Stu McCallum and Matt Meridith.
On another note – we want to congratulate former SCIAC Player of the Year Bob Donlan on his induction this past year into the Ted Ducey CMS Hall of Fame.
We also want to note 2024-25 as being Coach
Ken Scalmanini's 30th year at CMS – five years as an assistant coach to David Wells and now 25 years at the helm of the Stags.
And as such, Coach Scalmanini and his staff are excited in looking forward to the 2025-26 season for Stags basketball. The returning members from this year's team and the highly anticipated recruiting class bring continued high expectations for another successful season.
As always, we thank you for your support of CMS Stags basketball. Please watch for new developments at cms.claremont.edu. In addition, the website has archives of great CMS Stags basketball memories along with bringing all games for streaming and live stats.
