WORCESTER, Mass. - The Ithaca College men's basketball team traveled to WPI to play the Stockdon Ospreys for a first round matchup in the NCAA Division III Championship on Friday and came away with a convincing, 80-69 win. Ithaca secured its first NCAA victory since 2020 and will now move onto the second round to face No. 19 WPI at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow evening. The Bombers are now 19-9 on the season.

Aidan Holmes, Logan Wendell and Evan Cabral combined for 63 points on the afternoon as the trio combined to shoot 19-for-40 from the field, 10-for-27 from 3-point range and 15-for-21 at the line. Holmes led the way with a career day as he posted 23 points, to go along with six rebounds and two steals, while Wendell and Cabral each tallied 20 points. Cabral also secured his second straight double-double with 13 rebounds and Wendell added six boards with four steals.

Stockton scored the first points of the game, but after a layup from Cabral and 1-for-2 at the line from Holmes, the Bombers never surrendered the lead again. IC would go up by as many as 12 points midway through the half, 27-15 and eventually added another point to its lead heading into halftime at 39-26.

The Ospreys had no answers in the second half and the Bombers extended their advantage to 22 points at 66-44 with 9:37 to go in the contest. Stockton managed to bring the difference back to within single digits at 76-67, but there was just 1:34 remaining in the game and Ithaca cruised to the 11-point win, 80-69.

Stockton entered the game averaging just over 85 points per game and the Ospreys' leading scorer, EJ Matthews-Spratley, was held to 14 points. Matthews-Spratley entered the contest averaging 23.3 points. Stockton also shot just 3-for-23 from 3-point range.

The Bombers finished the contest shooting 43.5-percent (27-for-62) from the field and made 11 3-pointers.