CMS Women's Basketball Coach Jodie Burton Wins 500th Game
Jodie Burton won her 500th game as head women's basketball coach
on Saturday night as CMS won at Caltech 51-36. She is the
15th coach in Division III history to achieve the milestone.
CMS improved to 8-5 overall and 2-0 in SCIAC while Caltech fell to
0-13 and 0-2.
The historic win was not easy despite the differences in the
records of the two teams. CMS did not play two of their
normal starters (Frannie Hemmelgarn, Kimberly Scamman) due to minor
injuries and the team struggled without their leading scorer and
point guard. The Athenas led early 8-2, but then had more
than a 12 minute stretch without scoring. CMS missed 22
straight shots and Caltech went on a 10-0 run and finished the half
outscoring the Athenas 14-2.
The Athena offense picked up in the second half and CMS retook the
lead at 19-18, but were unable to shake the Beavers as Caltech
eventually tied the game at 27. CMS put the game away with a
15-2 run and held on to give Burton her milestone win.
Lyndsay Bergus led the Athenas with 19 points and added seven
rebounds. Madeline Barnes added 11 points. Rachel Hess
led Caltech with 15 points.
CMS next plays at Cal Lutheran on Thursday, January 12 with game
time set for 7:30.
Burton's career record now stands at 500-293 (.631). She is
the winningest coach in SCIAC basketball history. Former
Redlands coach Gary Smith has the most wins (450) among SCIAC men's
coaches and current Pomona-Pitzer coach Kathy Connell (346) is next
among SCIAC women's coaches. Burton, who is now 234-134
(.636) in SCIAC games, has also won more SCIAC games than any other
coach. In fact, she has more SCIAC wins than all of the other
schools in the conference except Pomona-Pitzer.
Burton is now in her 32nd year at CMS and only nine coaches among
all Divisions of the NCAA have coached for more years with one
team. She has won six SCIAC titles and finished second 13
times. Her teams have won 20 or more games nine times.
