WALTHAM, Mass. – The nationally-ranked Bentley University women's basketball team will be in action twice this weekend as the Falcons will close out 2016 and kick off 2017 with a pair of non-conference games at the Dana Center.

Bentley, number 11 in the WBCA Division II coaches poll and 12th in the D2SIDA media poll, will host Molloy College New Year's Eve day at noon and will welcome in 2017 with a New Year's Day game against Holy Family University (2 pm). Free webcasts of both contests will be available at www.bentleyfalcons.tv.

Coach Barbara Stevens' team has prospered during 2016 and will be looking for its 30th win of the calendar year when it takes on Molloy Saturday afternoon. 2016 has seen the Falcons amass a 29-6 record, including 10-2 to start this season, and twice cut down the nets, first at the Northeast-10 Championships last March and again eight days later during the NCAA Division II East Regional, before reaching the national semifinals.

Bentley, idle since posting a 74-54 win over LIU Post on Dec. 18, will enter Saturday's game riding its second five-game winning streak of the season. During the last five contests, the Falcons have limited their opponents to 54.8 points a game, a .367 field goal percentage and a total of 19 three-pointers.

Senior All-America forward Jen Gemma (Milton/Fontbonne Academy), with 1,774 career points, will enter the weekend within reach of surpassing both Alison Fay '84 and Kelly Barker '01 on the program's all-time scoring list. Fay, currently number three with 1,792 points, was Bentley's career scoring leader from 1983-2001, and Barker (2nd, 1,800) held the honor from 2001-14.

Gemma, twice the Northeast-10 Player of the Year, is fourth in the conference in scoring (18.0 per game) and also averages 6.4 rebounds and 1.1 steals.

Also scoring in doubles for coach Barbara Stevens' team are junior guards Lauren Green (Damascus, Md./Damascus HS) and Macchi Smith (Los Angeles, Calif./Windward School). Green is second to Gemma at 12.3, and Smith is up to 11.1 after scoring 18 points, all in the second half, against LIU Post.

Sophomore post Victoria Lux (Arundel, Maine/Thornton Academy) made her first start of the season in Bentley's last game and responded with a season-best 15 points, eight rebounds and four assists.

Molloy, a first-time Bentley opponent and the eighth-ranked team in the East Region, will come into Waltham fresh off an impressive 81-76 win over previously 10-2 Caldwell Thursday afternoon. The 9-4 Lions shot 53 percent overall and dominated the boards, 48-24, while knocking off the region's second-ranked team.

Molloy, coached by former Dowling head coach Joe Pellicane, receives about two-thirds of its scoring from a trio of players, including senior guard Aliyah McDonald who averages 14.8 points and 6.5 rebounds. She's followed by a pair of graduate students, guard Kamala Thompson (14.2 ppg, 7.5 rpg, 2.1 steals) and six-foot forward Symone Kelly (13.2 ppg, 8.0 rpg). Thompson came to Molloy from Dartmouth and Kelly began her career at Siena.

Holy Family, which will play at Merrimack on Saturday before facing Bentley on New Year's Day, took a 3-8 record into the holiday break. The Tigers won their last two after a 1-8 start, 71-53 over Philadelphia and 69-60 against West Chester.

Senior guard Jill Conroy, Holy Family's leading scorer (15.0 ppg) and playmaker (42 assists), is an outstanding shooter from deep, with 24 three-pointers in 48 attempts. The team's other double-figure scorer is senior forward Abigail Iannotti, who averages a double-double (12.6 ppg, 10.5 rpg).

Bentley, in the midst of a stretch that sees Stevens' squad play six of seven at home, will resume Northeast-10 action on Jan. 7 against New Haven. The Falcons currently lead the NE-10's Northeast Division by three games.