CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Chapman men's basketball team hit 11 of its 16 three-pointers in the first half to build a 43-34 lead it never relinquished as it captured a 79-68 win over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in the semifinals of the SCIAC Postseason Tournament on Friday evening at Roberts Pavilion. 

With the win, Chapman moves to 18-8 and advances to play in the SCIAC Championship on Sunday at Redlands, which won its semifinal over Occidental. CMS slips to 22-4 on the year with the loss after tying for the regular season title with Redlands. 

Reid Jones led CMS with 16 points and five steals, while knocking down three of the four three-pointers that the Stags hit on the day. Chapman was 11-20 from beyond the arc in the first half, and finished the game 16-34 (47.1 percent), led by 5-9 from Cruz Billings, who finished with a game-high 23 points. 

Will Householter was also in double figures for CMS with 11 points and added five assists, while Cahal Connolly had 10 points.TJ Tiffelfitz had 12 points on 5-5 shooting off the bench for Chapman, including 2-for-2 from three. 

The Stags tried to fight their way back in on a couple of occasions, including a quick spurt that cut a 14-point deficit down to seven, as Will Householter had a three-pointer with 6:54 left, Jones had an immediate steal and lay-up, and then had another steal that led to a fast break foul on Luke Jacobson that was upgraded to a flagrant.

Jacobson hit both foul shots to cut it to seven with 6:13 left, and the Stags had the ball with a chance to close the gap even further, but Joe Jack had a steal and then hit a three-pointer to push it back to 10 and the Panthers were able to hold on the rest of the way. 

CMS will await NCAA selection on Monday, after entering SCIAC Tournament play with an NPI computer ranking of 23.