Recap and photo courtesy of Babson Athletic Communications. 

BOSTON—Senior Andrew Kirkpatrick (Winnetka, Ill.) scored a career-high 27 points to help third-seeded Babson College defeat second-seeded Emerson College, 69-64, in a New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Tournament semifinal on Thursday night inside Brown-Plofker Gymnasium.

Babson, which has now won 10 of its last 11 games, improves to 18-8 and is headed to the NEWMAC Tournament final for the first time since 2017. Emerson sees its season come to a close at 16-10.

Kirkpatrick was 7-of-10 from the floor in the first half and went 8-of-10 at the free throw line on the night in addition to grabbing five rebounds, dishing out four assists and blocking two shots. Sophomore Nate Amado (Hanson, Mass.) contributed 17 points and three blocks, while first-years Timmy O'Toole (Milton, Mass.) and Mark Woolhouse (Lebanon, N.J.) pulled down nine and seven rebounds, respectively.

Graduate student Jarred Houston (Norwood, Mass.) scored 19 points and led all players with 18 rebounds for the Lions. Classmate Nate Martin (Washington, D.C.) also scored 19 points to go along with six boards and three assists in the loss.

The Green and White scored on its first four possessions and jumped out to an 8-0 lead three minutes into the contest. A four-point play by Martin cut the Emerson deficit in half and the hosts got as close as two four times in the first half before the Beavers closed the stanza with a 13-5 run that included 10 points from Kirkpatrick to extend their lead to 10 at the break.

He followed a layup by Houston with back-to-back pull-up jumpers and Amado drilled a three-pointer from the right wing to make it 27-20 with 4:14 to go until halftime. Kirkpatrick closed the period with Babson's final six points, the last coming with seven seconds left to send the visitors into the locker room up 33-23.

The Beavers held the Lions scoreless over the first four minutes of the second half and sophomore David Cross (Cinnaminson, N.J.) followed up his triple from the right wing with a steal and a layup to extend the margin to 41-25 with 14:53 to play in the game. A three-pointer by Kirkpatrick and a bucket inside by Amado made it 46-29 with 11:58 to go before Emerson responded with a 9-2 run sparked by five points from graduate student Sean Coman (Dallas, Texas) to pull within 48-38 at the 9:38 mark.

Emerson cut its deficit to single digits for the first time since late in the first half on a layup by junior Trevor Arico (Ann Arbor, Mich.) with 6:04 remaining but Amado answered with three straight points and Kirkpatrick canned a pull-up jumper to push Babson's advantage back to 57-47 with 4:40 to play.

The hosts got as close as six on a trey by Max Davis (Oakland, Calif.) with 2:19 to go but the Green and White went 12-of-16 at the charity stripe over the final 57 seconds to seal the win.

Babson will travel to Worcester to take on top-seeded WPI in the NEWMAC Tournament final on Saturday at 2 p.m.

GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are 31-5 all-time against Emerson, which includes a 3-1 mark in four conference tournament matchups.
• Babson is now 4-1 this winter and 7-2 over the last two seasons in games decided by five points or less.
• In six contests over the last two seasons against Emerson, Kirkpatrick has averaged 17.0 points on 52.1 percent shooting.
• The Beavers have limited 13 of their last 14 opponents to 64 points or fewer.