WALTHAM, Mass. – After closing out the regular season with a solid victory over the region's second-ranked team, the Bentley University Falcons will launch the Northeast-10 Conference Men's Basketball Championships with a first-round game at The College of Saint Rose Tuesday night. Tip off at the Daniel P. Nolan Gymnasium in Albany is set for 7 pm.

Bentley, coming off an 80-66 win over Franklin Pierce in which it held the Ravens to 36 percent shooting, is the fifth seed out of the Northeast Division while Saint Rose earned the right to host the game by being fourth seed from the Southwest. The winner of Friday's game will be on the road Sunday, taking on Northeast Division champion Saint Anselm at 3 pm.

Bentley has the better overall record between the two (17-10 as compared to 13-13) and prevailed in the only regular season match-up, 95-87 in Waltham in late January. The Golden Knights have been impressive on their home court, winning nine of 11 before dropping an 86-80 decision to nationally-ranked Southern Connecticut State in the regular season finale.

In the meeting a little more than four weeks ago, Bentley used superior shooting from both three-point land and the foul line to record the eight-point win. The Falcons had a 13-4 advantage in three-pointers made, were more accurate from outside (46-31 percent) and made five more free throws in two less attempts.

Sophomore forward Tyler McFarland (Rockport, Maine/Camden Hills HS) and senior guard Jasper Grassa (Lynn/Lynn Classical HS) powered Bentley with a combined 48 points while six-foot-eight senior Dominykas Milka rode 12 offensive rebounds to 23 points.

While Saint Rose relies a great deal on the frontcourt tandem of Milka and six-foot-six sophomore Tyler Sayre, Bentley's offense is much more perimeter-oriented, although McFarland is a threat to score either inside or out.

Coach Jay Lawson's Falcons knock down 10 three-pointers a game, a conference-high and an average exceeded only once in program history, and shoot nearly 40 percent from outside. Saint Rose, on the other hand, has made the fewest triples of any Northeast-10 team, 122, and has a 33 percent accuracy rate.

All five current starters for the Falcons average at least one three-pointer a game with Grassa topping the list with 75. Bentley's all-time leader in that category (280), he averages 14.3 points and is six points away from cracking the program's top 25 in career scoring.

McFarland has been the team's most accurate from downtown (49 percent this season and for his career) with his 18.1 scoring average seventh best in the conference. In the Franklin Pierce game, he scored 18 points without missing a shot.

Junior Keegan Hyland (South Portland, Maine/South Portland HS), a starter in the last three games, and sophomore Alex Furness (Wells, Maine/Wells HS) are both shooting over 42 percent from three-point land. Hyland has averaged 15.4 points and 6.3 rebounds this month, and Furness  (10.4 ppg) is coming off a career-best nine-assist, zero-turnover effort.

Junior forward Andrew Shaw (Saco, Maine/Thornton Academy) complete the starting five for the Falcons. He's second on the team in three-pointers (48) and is averaging just under ten points a game.

Off the bench, sophomore forward Shaq Phelps (Linden, N.J./Linden HS) has scored at least seven in five of his last six games, including 11 against Franklin Pierce.

Milka and Sayre are two of the top five scorers in the conference with averages of 20.4 and 18.3, respectively. Milka is the NE-10's premier rebounder (12.2 overall, 4.0 offensive) and is second in free throw attempts. Sayre also spends a lot of time at the line (five attempts a game) with an .854 success rate.

Senior guard Kareem Thomas, who had 17 in the earlier Bentley game, is the team's top scorer out of the backcourt, averaging 10.4. The premier three-point threat is also a senior, Dan Mundweiler, with 43.

Bentley and Saint Rose, two of the 13 winningest programs in Division II history, have met in the preseason three times previously, most recently in both the Northeast-10 Championships and the NCAA East Regional in 2011. The Falcons have won all three, but were played in Waltham.