Bentley Opens Elite Eight Play Tuesday against the 2-Time Defending National Champions
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – A special season for the Bentley University men's basketball team will continue Tuesday when the Falcons take on two-time defending national champion Northwest Missouri State in the opening game of the NCAA Division II Elite Eight at the 11,000-seat Ford Center here. Tip-off is set for 1 pm ET and it will be streamed live on www.NCAA.com.
Bentley traveled to the Midwest for the program's fourth Elite Eight with a 25-4 record and a seven-game winning streak after capturing the East Regional with an 82-75 win over St. Thomas Aquinas. The victory marked the ninth time this season Coach Jay Lawson's club has left the court with a W after trailing at the half and snapped the Spartans' 16-game winning streak.
Northeast Missouri State, 31-5 overall, has won eight straight and had an average margin of victory of 14.7 points during the Central Regional. The Bearcats have won the last two national championships (2019 and 2021, with the 2020 tournament cancelled due to Covid), and three since 2017.
Bentley and Northwest are seeded fourth and fifth, respectively, in the Elite Eight. In the latest national polls, which were conducted prior to regional play, the Bearcats were ranked four places above the Falcons in each. The NABC Division II coaches poll had Northwest tenth and Bentley 14th while the D2SIDA media poll had the teams seventh and 11th, respectively.
An interesting contrast between the two teams is in rebounding. Bentley ranks second nationally in total rebounds, defensive rebounds and rebound margin while Northwest allows the nation's fewest rebounds. The Falcons have outrebounded their opponents by an average of 10.8 a game and the Bearcats are a +3.5 on the boards. This season, Bentley is 23-4 when winning the rebound battle and Northwest is 26-2. The Falcons have been outrebounded twice, both wins, and the Bearcats are 5-3 when giving up more rebounds.
Four 1,000-point scorers will be on the court Tuesday, two for each team. Bentley's Jordan Mello-Klein (Sharon, Mass./Thayer Academy) and Mason Webb (Oklahoma City, Okla./Bishop McGuinness HS) are among the 56 players in Bentley history to achieve that milestone while the Bearcat backcourt of Trevor Hodgins and Diego Barnard rank in the top nine in Northwest history. Hodgins, the Bearcats' all-time leading scorer, is the only NCAA basketball player in the country, regardless of division, with at least 2500 points and 600 assists.
Bentley, which has four 15-point per game scorers for the season, has been led by Mello-Klein during the postseason. The graduate guard, the Most Outstanding Player of both the conference championships and the East Regional, has averaged 18.3 points, nine rebounds and four assists in the two tournaments. For the season, he's at 15.1 points, 8.6 rebounds and 5.3 helpers with a team-best 75 triples and a .424 accuracy mark from deep.
The team's top scorers for the season are graduate guard Colton Lawrence (Myerstown, Pa./ELCO HS) and sophomore guard Zach Laput (Beacon Falls, Conn./Notre Dame HS), with scoring norms of 15.9 and 15.3. Both have shot 45 percent from beyond the arc, and Laput has made 50 more free throws than any other player on the team with a percentage of .874 (104 of 119).
Webb shot a sizzling 13 of 21 from deep in the regional and is averaging 15 points overall.
Completing Bentley's starting five is graduate forward Pete Blust (Hinsdale, Ill./Hinsdale Central HS), whose 56 blocks are amongst the highest single season totals in program history.
Off the bench, Lawson most usually calls upon senior wing Brian Wright-Kinsey (Brooklyn, N.Y./Brooks School) and graduate forward Adria Amabilino Perez (Barcelona, Spain). Kinsey scored 8.8 a game and Amabilino Perez averaged 7.3 points on 69 percent shooting in the regional.
Northwest Missouri, whose five losses are more than they had the last three seasons combined, feature the backcourt of Hudgins and Bernard, a duo who are 14-0 all-time in the NCAA tournament. Both are listed as juniors but each has played four seasons and over 130 career games. Hudgins averages 23.1 points and 4.3 assists, and has an incredible 157 three-pointers with a .421 accuracy mark from downtown. Bernard owns a 12.1 scoring average and has 67 steals.
Another significant scoring threat for the Bearcats is six-seven sophomore Wes Dreamer, who owns 88 three-pointers and a 13.2 point-per-game average.
As a team, Northwest averages 76.9 points while shooting .504 overall, .399 from three and .805 at the line. Defensively, they give up 62.3 points a game and force 12.9 turnovers.
Bentley has played at a quicker pace this season with the Falcons averaging nearly 15 more shots a game, 66.2 as compared to 51.6. The Falcons make more defensive plays a game, averaging 10.4 "stocks" (steals and blocks) a game as compared to 8.6 for Northwest.
Awaiting the Bentley-Northwest survivor will be the winner between top-seeded and unbeaten Nova Southeastern and eighth-seeded Black Hills State.
In the other half of the bracket, Hillsdale (Mich.) is facing Indiana (Pa.) and Chico State (Calif.) is paired up against Augusta (Ga.).