Men's Basketball vs. DeSales
NCAA Tournament First Round | Ashland Regional
Friday, March 4 | 4:30 p.m.
Crenshaw Gym | Ashland, Va.

WHAT TO KNOW
• Babson travels to Ashland, Va., for the opening weekend of the 2022 NCAA Tournament beginning on Friday.
• The Beavers take on DeSales, while No. 1 Randolph-Macon (25-1) face Mitchell (17-10) in the other first round matchup.
• Friday's winners will meet in the second round on Saturday at 7 p.m.

SERIES HISTORY
• Babson and DeSales will meet for the first time on Friday.

BABSON IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
• The Beavers are making their sixth appearance since 2014 and are back in the NCAA Tournament for the 11th time in program history.
• Babson claimed the program's first national championship with a 79-78 win over Augustana (Ill.) in 2017. The Green and White also advanced to the Final Four in 2015 and reached the Sweet 16 in 2002 and 2016.
• The Beavers are 4-4 all-time in first round games and suffered an OT loss to Ithaca in 2020.

DESALES IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
• The Bulldogs are making their sixth NCAA Tournament appearance and first since 2019 when it lost to York (Pa.) in the opening round.
• DeSales advanced to the national quarterfinals in 2009 and followed it up with a trip to the Sweet 16 in 2010.

SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
• Babson (18-7) earned an at-large bid to the tournament following its 85-77 OT loss to Emerson in the NEWMAC semifinals last Thursday.
• Senior Colin Bradanese scored 18 points and Kieran Dorney finished with 17 points and 16 rebounds to lead four players in double figures for the Beavers, who led by as many as 16 early in the second half.
• Bradanese (14.8 pts, 6.1 reb) is shooting 53 percent from the floor, Dorney (12.3 pts, 7.0 reb) leads the team with seven double-doubles, and first-year Nate Amado (11.6 pts, 7.5 reb) has scored at least 17 points in three of his last four outings.
• The Green and White has scored at least 77 points in six of its last seven games and ranks 31st in Division III in three-point field goal defense holding its opponents to just 29.4 percent.

SCOUTING THE BULLDOGS
• DeSales (22-5) earned an at-large berth to the tournament after suffering a 65-61 loss to Lycoming in the MAC Freedom semifinals last Friday.
• Matt Kachelries and Timmy Edwards both scored 14 points for the Bulldogs, who led by nine midway through the first half but finished just 2-of-13 from beyond the arc.
• Edwards (12.2 pts, 5.5 reb) is averaging 16.8 points over his last five games, Kachelreis (9.8 pts, 5.9 ast, 4.1 reb) ranks 18th in Division III in assists, and Dat Lambert (9.0 pts, 3.0 reb) has knocked down a team-high 56 three-point field goals this winter.
• DeSales ranks 11th in Division III in scoring defense allowing just 61.5 points and is holding its opponents to just 39.5 percent shooting, which is good for 28th in the country.

TALKING TEMPO
• Babson ranks 221st in Division III in adjusted tempo with 72.8 possessions per game, while DeSales is one of the slowest teams in the country ranking 396th (67.8 possessions) according to Matt Snyder's efficiency ratings.
• The Beavers average 1.06 points per possession and rank 70th in offensive efficiency, while the Bulldogs rank 46th producing 1.11 points per trip.

VETERAN DUO EARNS ALL-NEWMAC HONORS
• Bradanese and graduate student Mitchell Kirsch collected NEWMAC All-Conference honors on Tuesday.
• Bradanese, who ranks fifth in the league in field goal percentage, sixth in blocked shots, 10th in scoring and 12th in rebounding was named to the first team.
• Kirsch, who garnered second-team honors, is averaging 9.5 points, 4.6 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 1.4 steals and is the only player to start all 25 games this winter for the Beavers.

MOVING UP THE CHARTS
• Bradanese enters the NCAA Tournament ranked third in program history with 77 blocked shots. He needs just one more to tie Tim O'Brien '97 for second place behind all-time leader Bryant Richards '96, who swatted 128 shots in his career.
• Kirsch, who transferred from Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, has dished out 115 assists this season, which is good for the fourth highest total going back to 2003. He ranks 14th on the program's single-season list.
• Kirsch's father David, a 1986 graduate of Babson, dished out 317 assists during his four-year career and ranks sixth on the program's career list.

COMING ON STRONG
• Over his last 10 games, Dorney is averaging 15.5 points and 9.1 rebounds while scoring in double figures nine times and posting five double-doubles.
• He is shooting 50 percent (31-of-62) from beyond the arc and has made at least three triples in eight of 10 contests during this stretch.

SWEET VIRGINIA
• The state of Virginia will always hold a special place in the history of Babson men's basketball thanks to the Beavers' 2017 national championship run that culminated with rallying from a 25-point deficit against Whitman in the national semifinals prior to the title game victory over Augustana (Ill.)
• Friday's contest marks the first time Babson has returned to Virginia since hoisting the Walnut and Bronze on March 18, 2017.
• Head coach Stephen Brennan was selected as the NABC Coach of the Year in the days following the national title and current assistant Matthew Droney '17 came off the bench to score eight points in the championship game.

THREE AT A TIME
• Since entering the starting lineup at Springfield on February 9, senior James Welch is averaging 15.8 points on 51.2 percent shooting.
• He is 17-of-30 (56.7 percent) from beyond the arc, has made at least three three-pointers in each of his last four outings and has knocked down 105 career triples.

TOURNAMENT TESTED
• Bradanese, who finished with 13 points and nine rebounds, and junior Andrew Kirkpatrick (11 points, 4-of-9 FG) both started in the Beavers' 90-88 OT loss to Ithaca in the first round of the 2020 NCAA Tournament.
• Junior Aaron Gao came off the bench to score eight points on 4-of-5 shooting in 14 minutes of action, while senior Beau Smith grabbed one board in six minutes in his NCAA Tournament debut.

NUMBERS TO KNOW
• The Beavers are 9-1 this season when holding opponents below 40 percent shooting and 9-0 when foes score less than 70 points.
• Babson has gone 9-0 when scoring at least 80 points this winter.
• The Beavers are 13-1 when outrebounding their opponents.
• The Green and White is 10-0 when making at least nine three-pointers.

TICKETS
• Ticket prices for all games are $15 for adults and $10 for children, seniors and students. Kids under two are admitted free of charge.