WALTHAM, Mass. – Following its best regular season in 14 years, the Bentley University men's basketball team will make its 2022 Northeast-10 Conference championship debut Monday night with a quarterfinal game against The College of Saint Rose. Game time at the Dana Center is 7:30 pm and as usual, it will be streamed on the NE10 NOW Digital Network.

Bentley, 19-4 overall, captured the NE10 Northeast Division title and locked up the homecourt advantage throughout the conference championships. Coach Jay Lawson's team is 12-1 on its home court this season and has won 13 of its last 15 overall.

Saint Rose, 14-11 overall after an 80-76 first-round win over Southern New Hampshire Saturday, has won four straight for the second time in the last 12 games. In between winning streaks, the Golden Knights lost four in a row, all by 16 points or more.

The two teams met once during the regular season with Bentley winning out in Albany, 83-68, after trailing by a point at the half. All five Falcon starters scored in doubles with graduate guard Jordan Mello-Klein (Sharon/Thayer Academy) leading the way with 18 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and three steals while playing all 40 minutes.

Mello-Klein has had a strong season for the Falcons with his season norms 14.3 points, 8.5 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 2.1 steals. He's in the top three in the NE10 in each of those categories, as well as minutes and assist-turnover ratio

Ahead of Mello-Klein on Bentley's scoring list are graduate Colton Lawrence (Myerstown, Pa./ELCO HS), sophomore Zach Laput (Beacon Falls, Conn./Notre Dame HS) and senior Mason Webb (Oklahoma City, Okla./Bishop McGuinness HS). Lawrence averages 17.3, Laput 15.0 and Webb 14.8.

Bentley, ranked 20^th in Division II and first in the NCAA Division II East Region rankings, will be playing for the first time since a 69-56 win over Saint Anselm Tuesday. Laput and Webb led the scoring with 15 and 13 points, respectively, and the Falcon D limited the Hawks to just 32 percent shooting.

Lawson's team leads the NE10 in a number of categories, including scoring (82.0), assists (16.2), field goal percentage (.471), three-point accuracy (.385) and free throw shooting (.746). Lawrence is number one in three-point percentage and graduate forward Pete Blust (Hinsdale, Ill./Hinsdale Central HS) is first in field goal percentage (.624).

Six-foot-six freshman Shane O'Dell has come up big for Saint Rose all season and that was the case in the NE10 first-round win over SNHU. He buried four triples on his way to 24 points and also had four rebounds, four assists and five blocks.

For the season, O'Dell is up to fourth in the NE10 in scoring at 19.8 points after totaling 52 points in the last two games.

Others to watch for Saint Rose are guards Tray Alexander and Adam Anderson, who have averages of 14.3 and 11.2.

As a team, Saint Rose is fourth in scoring (76.2), 10^th in scoring defense (75.6) and 11^th in rebound margin (-1.8).

Bentley, which is looking for its first NE10 playoff title since 2008,

Is looking to advance to the conference semifinals for the first time since 2018.

In the other quarterfinal games, Saint Anselm is at New Haven, Southwest Division champion Pace is at home against Stonehill and Assumption is at Franklin Pierce. The Bentley-Saint Rose winner will take on the Saint Anselm/New Haven winner in a semifinal game Thursday.

The championship game is Sunday afternoon, Mar. 4.