ASHLAND, Va. — Junior Kieran Dorney (Garden City, N.Y.) and senior Colin Bradanese (Billerica, Mass.) combined for  37 points and 18 rebounds Friday evening as Babson College defeated DeSales University (Pa.), 80-67, in the first round of the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Tournament at Randolph-Macon College's Crenshaw Gymnasium.

Babson, which has won 10 of its last 12 games, improves to 19-7 overall and advances to a second-round game Saturday at 7 p.m. against No.1-ranked Randolph-Macon after the Yellow Jackets (28-1) rolled past Mitchell in the second game of the night, 99-57. DeSales winds up its successful season with a 22-6 record.

The Beavers scored the first nine points of the second half to take a double-digit lead on the way to outscoring the Bulldogs 47-37 in the final 20 minutes and held off several potential DeSales comebacks. Babson wins its first NCAA Tournament game since capturing the national championship in 2017.

Dorney finished with a team-high 19 points and eight rebounds, hitting 8-of-13 from the field, while Bradanese filled up the stat sheet with his sixth double-double of 18 points (of 8-of-16 shooting) and 10 boards, along with five assists and three blocked shots. First-year Nate Amado (Hanson, Mass.) contributed 16 points and seven rebounds, junior Andrew Kirkpatrick (Winnetka, Ill.) chipped in with 13 points (on 4-of-6 shooting) off the bench, and graduate student Mitchell Kirsch (Atkinson, N.H.) was all over the court with nine points, five rebounds, six assists, three blocked shots and three steals.

Babson had to overcome a terrific performance by senior Timmy Edwards (Shiremanstown, Pa.), who poured in a career-high 34 points (on 15-of-26 shooting) and collected 11 rebounds. The Bulldogs got 29 points in bench scoring, led by nine points from sophomore Christian Guldin (Perkasie, Pa.), eight from sophomore Mason Barnes (Pottsville, Pa.) and seven from junior Jordan Holmqvist (Bangor, Pa.).

There were six lead changes and three tie scores in the first 10 minutes of the game. It remained a one-possession game with three more deadlocks over the next seven minutes until Kirsch hit a three-pointer and Amado followed with a lay-up as Babson pulled ahead by five (31-26) with 2:39 on the clock. Edwards sank a pair of free throws and a jumper to get the Bulldogs back to within one, but Amado answered with another layup and Babson took a 33-30 lead into the locker room.

Bradanese converted a put-back to open the second-half scoring, Kirsch added another triple and Amado made a layup after a steal by Kirsch as the Babson lead reached double figures (40-30) less than two minutes into the second half. Dorney made a lay-up to extend the margin before sophomore Elijah Eberly (Elizabethtown, Pa.) made a conventional three-point play to stop the bleeding for DeSales.

The Babson lead reached 17 points (52-35) after a Kirkpatrick three and a Bradanese basket with 12:35 remaining. DeSales answered with a 15-4 run, including nine points from Edwards and three-pointers by Guldin and Barnes, to slice the deficit to six points (56-50) with seven and a half minutes to play. Bradanese answered with back-to-back hoops and Dorney added a layup as the Beavers pushed the margin back up to a dozen with less than six minutes remaining.

The Bulldogs got as close as eight points twice around the three-minute and two-minute marks, but a bucket by Bradanese and free throws by Dorney prevented DeSales from getting any momentum. A jumper by Kirkpatrick with a minute to go made it a 12-point game and the Beavers went 6-for-6 at the free throw line in the final minute to seal the win.

Babson shot 53.6 percent from the field, 35.7 from three-point range and 83.3 percent from the free throw line, while limiting DeSales to 39.7 percent from the field and 22.2 percent from beyond the arc. The Beavers finished with a 38-32 advantage on the glass.

GAME NOTES
• Friday's game was the first career meeting between Babson and DeSales.
• The Beavers are 10-1 this season when holding opponents to below 40 percent shooting and 10-0 when foes score less than 70 points.
• The Green and White are 10-0 on the year when scoring at least 80 points and 14-4 when outrebounding their opponents.
• Bradanese's three blocked shots in the game move him into second place on the all-time Babson list with 80 blocked shots. He trails only all-time leader Bryant Richards '96, who swatted 128 shots in his career.