Lauren Green
Lauren Green

Bentley Visits Southern Connecticut Thursday, Seeking 7th Trip to NE10 Finals in 8 Years

WALTHAM, Mass. – Following a come-from-behind 70-62 quarterfinal win over Pace University on Sunday, the Bentley University Falcons will continue their bid for a record 20th Northeast-10 Conference women's basketball championship tonight with a 7 pm semifinal game at Southern Connecticut State University. Links to live stats and video are available at www.bentleyfalcons.com.

Bentley, the number two seed out of the NE10's Northeast Division, will make the trip to Southern Connecticut with a 25-3 overall record and a five-game winning streak. The Falcons, who'll be looking to reach the NE10 title game for the seventh time in eight years, are 12th in the latest WBCA Division II coaches' poll and moved up to second, behind Stoneihll, in this week's NCAA Division II East Region rankings on Wednesday.

The Falcons will be playing in their 34th NE10 semifinal and will be looking for their 28th trip to the conference championship game.

Southern Connecticut, which captured the Southwest Division title, has won eight of its last nine, including 75-64 over Southern New Hampshire in the quarterfinals. Number eight in the regional rankings, the Owls are 21-8 overall, including 10-3 at home.

A semifinalist for the sixth time, Southern is looking to reach the finals for the fourth time overall and the first time since 2012 when the Owls dropped a 79-52 decision to Bentley.

The two teams met once during the regular season with the Falcons scoring the game's final 12 points to prevail 64-48 at the Dana Center. Bentley outshot the visiting Owls 47-30 percent and dominated the boards, 51-28, but was hampered by 24 turnovers and 11 missed free throws.

Six players who earned All-Northeast-10 honors earlier in the week will be in action, including first-team honorees Victoria Lux (Arundel, Maine/Thornton Academy) for Bentley and senior forward Abby Hurlbert for Southern. Lux averages 13.6 points and 9.6 rebounds while Hurlbert gives the Owls 14 points and 5.7 boards.

Graduate guard Becca Musgrove (Plainview, N.Y./St. Anthony's HS), who is 16 points away from 1,000 for her collegiate career, and senior guard Lauren Green (Damascus, Md./Damascus HS), who'll be making her 122nd career start, represented Bentley on the All-Conference second and third teams, respectively.

Each team had one player earn honorable mention All-Conference recognition, Bentley senior guard Macchi Smith (Los Angeles, Calif./Windward School) and Owl sophomore Kiana Steinauer.

In the other semi, Stonehill is at home against Le Moyne. Their regular season match-up was a close one with the Skyhawks outscoring the Dolphins 20-12 in the fourth to prevail 62-56.

The highest surviving seed will host the championship game on Sunday at 1 pm.