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Keegan Hyland
Keegan Hyland

Bentley Heads to Central New York Looking for 11th Win in 12 NE-10 Games

WALTHAM, Mass. – The Bentley University men's basketball team will play its third straight away from home on Saturday with Le Moyne College the latest stop for the first place team in the Northeast-10 Conference's Northeast Division.

Game time at Le Moyne's Ted Grant Court is set for 2 pm with a link to the webcast available at www.bentleyfalcons.com.

Bentley's 73-55 win at Pace on Wednesday gave coach Jay Lawson's team records of 13-3 overall and 10-1 in the NE-10, good for a half-game lead over Saint Anselm in the Northeast Division standings. The Falcons have won ten of their last 11 with all the wins by a margin a 12 or more.

Le Moyne, coming off a buzzer-beating win at St. Michael's that snapped a five-game slide, is 6-10 overall and 4-7 in the conference. The Dolphins have come up short in their last three home games after winning their first four at home.

Saturday's game will mark the first time that Bentley grad student and Academic All-America® Keegan Hyland (South Portland, Maine/South Portland HS) and his brother, Le Moyne sophomore guard Tanner Hyland, will face each other as collegians.  Keegan scored 25 for Bentley in a 73-65 win over the Dolphins in December 2014 but Tanner did not play in that one.

This season, Keegan is putting up 17.3 points, 7.9 rebounds and 3.5 assists a game for the Falcons. His string of four straight with 20-plus points ended at Pace, two games after he became the 51st 1,000-point scorer in program history. Tanner averages 10.8 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.7 assists for Le Moyne with both brothers playing about 31 minutes a game.

Senior forward Tyler McFarland (Rockport, Maine/Camden Hills HS), who became the third Falcon to reach the 1,800-point mark on Wednesday when he put up a 30-point, 10-rebound effort at Pace, owns the second-highest scoring average in the NE-10, 22.8. McFarland leads the conference in free throw accuracy (.891) and is third in blocks (2.0).

Bentley's third double-figure scorer, senior guard Alex Furness (Wells, Maine/Wells HS), is among the NCAA Division II national leaders in three-point accuracy (.529) and assist-turnover ratio (only 15 turns in over 500 minutes).  Junior guard Matt Barr (Stratham, N.H./Cushing Academy) has averaged 9.3 points and made six of seven triples while starting the last three games. Sophomore Brandon Wheeler (Stamford, Conn./Trinity Catholic HS) scored a season-best 13 at Pace and has had four or more rebounds in each of the last 11 games.

Bentley, one of the top shooting teams in the conference (2nd in field goal percentage, 3rd in three-point accuracy) will be taking on a Le Moyne team that has allowed its opponents to shoot .464, second highest in the NE-10. Rebounds also favor the visitors with the Falcons leading the conference in rebound margin (+7.8) and Le Moyne 14th (-4.5).

Le Moyne's top scorer is senior guard Qwadere Lovell, who produces 11.8 points and a team-high 3.4 assists a game. Among the forwards, Stan Buczek has a .598 field goal percentage and Daniel Kaiger has blocked 20 shots. They average 9.7 and 8.3 points, respectively.

Bentley will be home for its next two after facing Le Moyne with the Falcons hosting Saint Rose Wednesday and Southern Connecticut State Saturday.