Riley Naclerio scored a team-high 21 points and Kyle Edwards added 19, including three 3-pointers, as the St. Lawrence University men's basketball team defeated Johnson & Wales University 74-63 in the first round of the Ken Wright Memorial Tournament in Amherst, Mass., on Friday night.

The Saints (2-0) advance to the tournament championship and will face face Amherst, which defeated Green Mountain College earlier in the evening. Amherst is ranked No. 1 in the country according to the D3hoops.com preseason poll.

Against Johnson & Wales (0-1), the Saints built an early lead but had trouble with full court pressure near the end of the opening half to see the lead trimmed to one point. A pair of free throws by Naclerio and a 3-pointer by Edwards at the end of the period gave St. Lawrence a 37-31 lead at the break.

In the second half, the Saints went on another early run and led by as many as 16 points but once again, Johnson & Wales battled back to cut the lead to six points with 2:07 left to play. A 3-pointer by Kieran Miller sparked the Saints and Willie Zachery connected on a pair of free throws to stretch the lead back to double digits at 72-61 with 1:11 left.

Naclerio and Zachery were both 6-for-6 from the free throw line, while Naclerio grabbed a team-high eight rebounds. The Saints won the rebounding battle by 11 rebounds and limited Johnson & Wales to 12 percent shooting (3-for-25) from 3-point range.