Skip to navigation Skip to content Skip to footer
Tyler McFarland
Tyler McFarland

1st-Place Falcons Return Home in Search of 6th Straight Win

WALTHAM, Mass. – After completing a string of three straight road games in which they prevailed by 15, 18 and 26 points, the Bentley University men's basketball team will be back in the Dana Center Wednesday night for its first home game in two weeks, looking to improve to 12-1 in the Northeast-10 Conference.

The College of Saint Rose Golden Knights will provide the opposition for the 7:30 pm game. A free webcast will be available at www.bentleyfalcons.tv for those who can't make it to the Dana Center.

Coach Jay Lawson's Falcons are riding their second five-game winning streak of the season and will bring an overall mark of 14-3 into Wednesday's game. Bentley leads the NE-10's Northeast Division by one game over Saint Anselm, which is at home against Adelphi tonight.

Saint Rose, 8-10 overall and 6-6 NE-10, won five of its first six games this season but has dropped nine of its last 12 with all the wins coming on its home court. Away from Albany, the Golden Kngihts are 1-8 with eight straight losses (including a pair played on a neutral court).

Graduate student Keegan Hyland (South Portland, Maine/South Portland HS), a 2015 first-team CoSIDA Academic All-America®, continued an impressive month of January on Saturday when he erupted for a career-high 34 points in an 84-58 win at Le Moyne. It was the fifth time this season he's shot at least 70 percent and he finished seven of ten from three-point land.

This month, Hyland has averaged nearly 23 points while shooting 59 percent overall, 50 percent from three and 85 percent at the line. Included in his January production were his fourth and fifth double-doubles of the season.

Senior forward Tyler McFarland (Rockport, Maine/Camden Hills HS), the number two scorer in the conference with a 22.5 average, has strung together three straight double-doubles, a stretch in which he's produced 23.7 points, 11.3 rebound and three blocks a game. His career point total of 1,823 ranks sixth among active Division II players and number three in program history.

Senior guard Alex Furness (Wells, Maine/Wells HS) is one of four conference players who are shooting at least 50 percent from three, and he's also been the NE-10's best in assist-turnover ratio. Sophomore forward Brandon Wheeler (Stamford, Conn./Holy Trinity HS) has totaled 22 points and 17 rebounds in the last two games, and since replacing an injured Ferguson Duke (Dartmouth, N.S./ Hun School) in the starting unit, junior guard Matt Barr (Stratham, N.H./Cushing Academy) has buried six of ten three-pointers.

This is the second straight season that Saint Rose hasn't had its full complement of players available as a knee injury has kept last year's leading scorer, Chris Dorgler, on the sidelines after an off-season accident forced six-six junior Tyler Sayre to miss all of last season.

Sayre, a third-team All-Northeast-10 honoree two years ago, has bounced back nicely for the Golden Knights, averaging about 17 points and five rebounds while shooting 50 percent overall and 86 percent from the line. Six-eight sophomore Julian Lipinski is the team's other double-figure scorer at 10.3.

Saint Rose is coming off a 75-65 win over St. Michael's that featured 19 points on seven-of-nine shooting by freshman guard Pharroh Gordon, including four three-pointers. The Knights forced 20 turnovers which they converted into 19 points.

On Saturday, Bentley will host Southwest Division leader Southern Connecticut, which is off to a 15-4 start.