WHITEWATER, Wis. - Riley Aeikens had 19 points while Ben Figini and Sterling Nielsen had 18 each as No. 24 St. Olaf beat No. 16 Ohio Wesleyan 90-78 in the first round of the NCAA Division III Championship on Friday night at Kachel Gym. 

Aeiken's three-pointer with 2:41 left gave the Oles (22-5) their largest lead of the night, at 77-63. The Oles then made their last 12 free throws down the stretch, and 20-of-25 for the game, to hold off the Bishops (22-6). 

St. Olaf will play on Saturday at 7 p.m. (Live Stats | Live Video) against Defiance College (22-6), which upset No. 2 UW-Whitewater on the Warhawks' home floor in the second game on Friday. 

Ben Simpson had 25 points, on 10-for-13 shooting, to go with 11 rebounds for the Bishops. Claude Gray added 19 points, Nate Alexrod 14 and Nick Felhaber 12 for OWU in the loss. OWU was 9-for-24 from three-point range. Felhaber and Gray connected to cut the St. Olaf lead to six with 1:01 left, but four straight St. Olaf free throws and an OWU miss from long range all but ended the game.

St. Olaf used an 18-8 run over the final 6:35 of the first half to take a 37-36 lead. Nielsen made 2-of-3 at the line with no time on the clock, as he was fouled as time expired to give the Oles their first advantage.

The Oles used hot shooting to extend the lead in the second half. St. Olaf was 17-for-23 from the floor in the final 20 minutes, including 3-of-5 from three. 

OWU led by as many as nine in the first half. The Bishops made seven of their first nine field goal tries on the way to an 18-10 lead. Gray had seven points in the stretch, making his first three. 

St. Olaf and OWU came into the game as the most efficient teams in Division III. The Oles were No. 1 and OWU No. 2 in assist-turover ratio. The Oles won that battle too. St. Olaf had 16 assists and 10 turnovers while OWU had nine and 13 giveaways. 

The NCAA Division III tournament appearance is the second straight for the Oles, who made the first in school history last season. In that game, Central College (Iowa) raced to a 17-point first half lead and held on for an 85-72 win.

"We wanted to come out a little differently than we did last year, and I think we did," said St. Olaf head coachDan Kosmoski. "As the game went on our guys adjusted, talked out there and did the job."