WALTHAM, Mass. – Junior forward Maggie Whitmore (South Portland, Maine/South Portland HS) scored 11 of her game-high 21 points in the fourth quarter and freshman post Ciara Norman (Roebling, N.J./Life Center Academy) had a career-game off the bench, 19 points and  14 rebounds in 25:21, as Bentley University won every quarter en route to a 60-48 win over Southern New Hampshire University in Northeast-10 Conference women's basketball Wednesday night on Barbara Stevens Court.

Bentley, 13-8 overall and 10-5 NE10, halted a four-game slide and completed a season series sweep of the now-third place Penmen. Coupled with Assumption's loss to American International, the Falcons moved to within a game-and-a-half of first place.

An opening quarter that included five lead changes ended with Bentley up one, 15-14, after sophomore guard Amanda Kabantu (Portland, Maine/Portland HS) beat the buzzer with a driving lay-up.

It was 24-18 at the half after a second quarter in which Norman outscored Southern New Hampshire single-handedly, 6-4. Two of her buckets in the stanza came on second-chance opportunities. She had ten points on five-of-seven shooting and six rebounds in the half.

After the visitors came out of the break with eight straight points, Bentley put together an 18-6 surge over the final 8:10 to go up ten, 42-32. The run included six from Norman, five from junior guard Janessa Gonzalez (Meriden, Conn./St. Paul Catholic HS) and four from Whitmore.

The momentum carried over into the fourth with Whitmore scoring five of the first six points to extend the advantage to 16, 48-32. Southern New Hampshire got back to within nine with 93 seconds left, but Bentley closed it out by scoring six of the next eight points, including four from Whitmore.

Whitmore scored her 21 on 8-of-11 shooting from the field and five free throws in as many tries, extending her streak to 30. She also had seven rebounds, four steals and two assists.

Norman was a force inside as she made nine of 13 shots, collected five offensive rebounds, grabbed nine at the defensive end and came up with two of Bentley's 14 steals.

Kabantu added eight points, Gonzalez scored six and freshman guard Cassidy Yeomans (Marion/Tabor Academy) was a team-best plus-21 with five steals.

Junior forward Jess Knight (Hanover) was the only SNHU player to score in doubles as she finished with 16 points and four rebounds.

Bentley outshot the Penmen 42-36 percent, had a 38-26 rebound advantage. Turnovers were an issue for both teams as there were 30 combined steals.

The Falcons are off over the weekend and return to action Tuesday night at Adelphi University.