LA VERNE, Calif. - Will Householter had 23 points and Joey Kennedy added 22 as the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's basketball team held off La Verne to pick up an 85-71 SCIAC road win on Wednesday evening at the La Verne Sports Pavilion. 

CMS moves to 18-1 overall and 9-1 in the SCIAC with the win, while La Verne sees its record slip to 3-14 overall and 1-8 in league.

Cahal Connolly added 19 points, and Reid Jones added 15 points and five steals, extending his CMS single-season record to 83 steals and his program career record to 183. 

La Verne led 32-29 with 3:50 left in the half, but the Stags were able to surge ahead 41-38. Joey Kennedy opened the second half with a lay-up off a Jones steal and Connolly followed with a jumper to push the lead to eight. 

The Leopards kept crawling back and were still within four points at 59-55 with 10:57 to go, but Householter hit two straight baskets, Kennedy made a pair of foul shots, and Jones capped off an 8-0 run with a lay-up off a Kennedy pass to get the lead up to 67-55.

Once again, the Leopards were able to respond, though, and cut the lead down to 73-69 with 5:08 to go, before the Stags were able to close on a 12-2 run to seal it. A Connolly block triggered a fast break lay-up from Kennedy with 4:22 to go to start the closing run, and Connolly, Jones and Householter made baskets on three straight CMS possessions to get the lead back up to 12. 

CMS shot 53.0 percent from the floor for the game (35-66), and had 24 assists and only seven turnovers as a team. The Stags had seven different players record at least three assists, with Householter, Kennedy and Brady Karich leading the way with four apiece. 

CMS will be back in action on Saturday when it travels to Chapman for a 2 p.m. contest.