ST. MARY’S CITY, Md. — The DeSales Bulldogs had to pick their poison. They chose to focus on the post. So Randolph-Macon went to the perimeter, sending DeSales to its doom.

Randolph-Macon defeated DeSales 68-55 last night, sending the Yellow Jackets to the round of eight in the Division III NCAA tournament.

R-MC (25-6) will play Franklin & Marshall (26-4) tonight at 7.

DeSales’ strategy of double teaming R-MC’s big men worked well for the first five minutes. It took RMC almost six minutes to score its first basket.

“We were a little stagnant on offense,” R-MC forward Brandon Braxton said. “We were just rushing a lot of shots. We weren’t moving as much. We were just standing around.”

But R-MC coach Nathan Davis said he was prepared for DeSales’ strategy and knew what it would take to win.

“They’ve been doing that all year long,” Davis said. “They doubled everybody they’ve played against. So we weren’t surprised by that at all.”

As the first half continued, Randolph-Macon started to hit shots from the perimeter. With 6:29 left in the first half, Lamar Giggetts hit a 3 from the top of the key to give R-MC its first lead of the game, a lead the Yellow Jackets would never give up.

“They’ve got unbelievable balance,” DeSales coach Scott Coval said. “They’ve got post guys that can really play, so we have to double up on them. They’ve got perimeter guys that can shoot. You’ve got to give something up.”

The Yellow Jackets hit 9 of 22 3-pointers for the game, including 50 percent in the second half.

“We hoped they’d miss a couple,” Coval said. “And in the second half, they didn’t.”

When Macon’s big men, such as Braxton, would get double-teamed, he’d dish it off to one of the wings on the perimeter, who hit the big shots.

“We always play inside out,” Eric Pugh said. “We knew that they would trap it. It’s always better to get a shot coming from the inside out. It’s more of a rhythm that way. We knew if we threw it inside, that our big men would find us.”

At the same time, DeSales (24-6) struggled to get points on the board. The Bulldogs shot 18 for 51 (35.3 percent).

Brian Hunter led the Bulldogs with 27 points.

“We got some of the shots we wanted, but at the same time, they were playing really aggressively,” Hunter said. “A lot of the open 3-pointers we’ve had all year weren’t really there.”

Pugh led R-MC with 15 points. He was 3 for 5 from behind the arc. Calvin Croskey and Braxton each added 12 points. The Yellow Jackets shot 22 for 49 (44.9 percent) for the game.

The runner-up in the ODAC, Macon received an at large bid to the tournament.

The Yellow Jackets defeated Cabrini 95-66 and Clark 70-60 to get to this point.

The 25 wins the team has are the third most in program history, and the most since 2002-03, when the Yellow Jackets won a program-best 28 games.

Eric Kolenich is a staff writer for the Richmond Times Dispatch.