WALTHAM, Mass. – With the regular season down to its final two games, the Bentley University men's basketball team owns a one-game lead over Franklin Pierce University in the battle for the fifth and final postseason bid out of the Northeast-10 Conference's Northeast Division.

Those two teams will meet in Tuesday's finale, but prior to that, Bentley will look to strengthen its hold on fifth, and perhaps clinch, when it travels to Easton to take on Stonehill College Saturday at 7 pm.

The Falcons, who have dropped three of their last four, are 15-10 overall and 10-9 NE-10 after an 85-73 loss to Southern New Hampshire Wednesday in the final Dana Center appearance of the regular season. Stonehill, following an overtime road win at Franklin Pierce earlier in the week, returns home at 17-8 overall and 12-7 conference.

There is a chance Bentley could go into Saturday's game able to clinch a berth with a victory as Franklin Pierce will already have played (3:00 at Merrimack).

Junior forward Tyler McFarland (Rockport, Maine/Camden Hills HS) and senior guard Keegan Hyland (South Portland, Maine/South Portland HS), the highest scoring Bentley duo in a quarter-century, have accounted for nearly have of the Falcons' offense. McFarland scores 19.6 a game, fourth best in the NE-10, and Hyland follows at 18.7, the sixth most prolific number in the conference.

It was the 1989-90 season that Bentley had a pair of players who accounted for more points per game. That season, Bill Holden and Joe Hart both averaged over 20 with averages of 21.5 and 20.4, respectively.  However, they didn't produce for as high a percentage of the team's points as McFarland and Hyland have this winter as that Falcon team put up nearly 90 a game. Holden and Hart scored 46.8 percent of their team's points while McFarland and Hyland have teamed for 49.3 percent.

McFarland, the newest member on Bentley's top 20 scoring list, is coming off a 5-for-5 effort from three-point land. That raised his season accuracy to .459 and put him as the only NE-10 player shooting at least 50 percent overall, 45 percent from three and 85 percent from the line, numbers he's achieving for the second straight year. His average of 36.5 minutes per game is second most in program history and his 52 blocks ranks fourth on Bentley's all-time list.

Hyland, a candidate for Capital One Academic All-America® honors, leads Bentley in assists (94) and is second to McFarland in most other categories. He's had eight straight games with at least 16 points and seven rebounds, and has had at least one three in 24 of 25 games.

Guards Alex Furness (Wells, Maine/Wells HS) and J.P. Koury (Red Bank, N.J./CBA) are next on the Bentley scoring list, averaging 9.7 and 9.3 points, respectively. In the SNHU game earlier in the week, Furness has a season-high nine rebounds and Koury put up a 15-point, eight-rebound, five-assist effort.  

Stonehill, 8-2 over its last ten, has four double-figure scorers, including three who are taller than Bentley's tallest player. Six-foot-seven sophomore Ryan Logan tops the list at 13.6, six-eight senior Jack Cole follows at 12.0 and junior Pierce Cumpstone, also six-eight, has produced 10.4 points a game off the bench since making his season debut Dec. 31.  Cole is the top rebounder for the Skyhawks, averaging 8.3, and he also has 34 blocks.

Junior guards Carter Smith (13.4 ppg) and Adam Bramanti (7.6) are both threats from deep, combining for 100 triples. Smith, a 92 percent foul shooter, has connected on 58 from three with a .420 success rate and Bramanti shoots 46 percent from beyond the arc.

Both teams had four players score in doubles when they met in Waltham back on Nov. 22, and each was without a key performer, Furness for the Falcons and Cumpstone for Stonehill. The Skyhawks won that one 90-85 with Smith scoring 23 and Cole following with 20 points, 14 rebounds and five assists. McFarland had a big game for Bentley, hitting 12 of 17 overall and four of five three-pointers during a 29-point night.

In this past week's NCAA Division II regional rankings, Stonehill was eighth and Bentley number ten.