WALTHAM, Mass. – There will be no easing into the season for the 2014-15 Bentley University men's basketball team as the Falcons will make their debut Friday night at the Dana Center by facing preseason nationally-ranked Philadelphia University in the team's annual Tip-Off Classic.

The Bentley-Philadelphia match-up is scheduled for 8 pm. The two-day tournament will get underway two hours earlier with Merrimack College taking on Holy Family University.

The Northeast-10 teams will switch opponents on Saturday with Merrimack meeting Philadelphia at 6 pm and Bentley facing Holy Family at 8 pm.

Bentley coach Jay Lawson will begin his 24th season as head coach with a veteran team, one that includes seven of last year's top eight scorers. Among that group are three who started every game last season: junior forward Tyler McFarland (Rockport, Maine/Camden Hills HS), senior forward Andrew Shaw (Saco, Maine/Thornton Academy) and junior guard Alex Furness (Wells, Maine/Wells HS).

McFarland, coming off a season in which he averaged 18 points and seven rebounds, is one of the conference's best players.  He led the NE-10 in three-point accuracy (.495) and also excelled at the line with his .880 matching the best ever by a Bentley player with at least 100 attempts.

Shaw knocked down 54 three-pointers en route to averaging 10 points, and Furness filled the stat sheet with 10.1 points, 4.5 rebounds and 4.2 assists during his first year as a full-time starter.

The starting unit is also expected to include senior guards JP Koury (Red Bank, N.J./CBA) and Keegan Hyland (South Portland, Maine/South Portland HS). Koury has 84 steals during the last two seasons and provided nearly nine points a game last winter. Hyland finished his first season of college basketball with a 12.4 average, including 18.8 as a starter in the last five contests.

Philadelphia, whose Hall of Fame coach Herb Magee enters his 48th season 15 wins shy of 1,000, has been ranked as high as eighth in Division II preseason after returning four of the five starters from last year's 25-7 team. A one-point loss to Franklin Pierce in the opening round of the NCAA East Regional was just the second for the Rams in the season's final 16 games. They have a 1-2 exhibition record, including a 79-76 win at James Madison.

Six-foot-11 junior Peter Alexis had an outstanding season and was selected as a preseason second-team All-America by the Sporting News. He averaged 18.2 points and 9.5 rebounds, collected 122 offensive boards and blocked 57 shots. Derek Johnson and Nick Schlitzer, both 6-6, each averaged over 15 points and combined for nearly 140 three-pointers.

 Holy Family, whose season ended with a one-point loss to Philadelphia in the CACC championship game, returns six players but loss their three players who averaged in doubles. The 2013-14 Tigers led Division II in field goal percentage defense (.371) and were fifth in fewest points allowed (62.0).

Six-foot-eight junior Isaiah Gans is the Tigers' top returning scorer (9.9) and shot blocker (59). Six-foot-seven junior Derrick Stewart (8.5 ppg) was also a force on the boards (7.4 a game with 75 at the offensive end) and the Tigers have bolstered their frontcourt with seven-foot, 230-pound junior James McDonnell, a transfer from UMass-Lowell.

While Bentley and Philadelphia are meeting for the first time since the 2010 East Regional final, a game the Falcons won to earn a third Elite Eight trip in four years, the Falcons and Tigers are meeting for the second straight year. Last November, McFarland scored 23 and came within a rebound of a double-double in an 82-75 Bentley victory.