WALTHAM, Mass. – After a weekend bye and a one-day delay due to this week's blizzard, the Bentley University men's basketball team will be back in action Thursday night at the College of Saint Rose. Tip-off at the Daniel P. Nolan Gymnasium is slated for 7:30 pm with a webcast available at www.goldenknights.tv.

Coach Jay Lawson's Bentley team will make the trek out I-90 with records of 11-7 overall and 6-6 Northeast-10 following last Wednesday's 65-56 win over New Haven, the Falcons' 10th victory in 13 games since Thanksgiving.

Saint Rose will be looking to end a nine-game slide that has dropped the Golden Knights to 5-14 overall and 3-9 in the conference. The Knights, who have played a number of teams close during that streak, will be looking for their first win since upending New Haven, 72-70, eight days before Christmas.

Despite the variance in records, if the Northeast-10 championships were starting today, Saint Rose would be in and Bentley would be left out. Five teams from each division qualify and the Falcons are currently sixth in the Northeast, a half-game back of Franklin Pierce. On the other hand, Saint Rose is fifth in the seven-team Southwest, two games up on both Pace and Adelphi, who share sixth place.

Bentley, according to the NCAA, has faced the nation's toughest schedule with Saint Rose just the third Falcon opponent this season with a sub.-500 record.

The Falcons have been one of the conference's most effective shooting teams this season as they rank first in free throw percentage (.771), second in field goal accuracy (.471) and third in three-point shooting (.392).

One of the key reasons for that has been junior forward Tyler McFarland (Rockport, Maine/ Camden Hills HS), who is in the top ten in all three categories and is in the top two in program history in three-point percentage (.491) and free throw accuracy (.856).

McFarland, sixth in the NE-10 in scoring at 19.2, is joined on the conference's top ten scoring list by senior guard Keegan Hyland (South Portland, Maine/South Portland HS), tenth at 18.6.

All five Bentley starters, along with top frontcourt reserve Andrew Shaw (Saco, Maine/Thornton Academy), are shooting at least 46 percent overall and Shaw makes his threes at a 42-percent accuracy rate. Over the last ten games, that group is a combined .513 from the floor and .468 from outside with senior guard JP Koury (Red Bank, N.J./CBA) averaging 10.4, Shaw 9.9 and junior guard Alex Furness (Wells, Maine/Wells HS) 9.1.

Saint Rose interim head coach Mike Perno has a very young team with ten of his 14 available players freshmen, including seven of the nine who play at least ten minutes a game. One of the few upperclassmen to contribute is six-foot-four junior Chris Dongler, who puts up a team-best 11.8 a game while also leading the club in assists with 82.

Six-foot-nine Jack Jones and six-foot-five Jalaun Taylor are the highest scoring freshmen, both providing 9.5 a game.

On Saturday, Bentley will be back at home for a 3:30 game against Pace University. Prior to that contest, former Falcon standout Nate Fritsch will be recognized for his induction into the Northeast-10 Hall of Fame.