WALTHAM, Mass. – Ten days after registering an 89-84 win over Stonehill College in the Northeast-10 Conference Men's Basketball semifinals, the Bentley University Falcons will renew acquaintances with the Skyhawks on Saturday, this time down in Philadelphia at Holy Family University in the opening round of the NCAA Division II East Regional.

Tip-off for the fourth game of the day at the HFU Campus Center is set for 7:30 pm and a free webcast will be available at http://www.packnetwork.com/ncaadiieastm.

It'll be just the second time that Bentley and Stonehill will square off in the NCAAs, the lone previous encounter coming in the consolation game of the 1989 New England Regional. Bentley won that one in a high-scoring shootout, 129-118.

Last week's game was the third meeting of the season between the two 21-8 teams. The two regular season meetings went to Stonehill, 87-75 on January 2 following a strong Skyhawk finish and 92-71 in Easton February 3.

In the NE-10 semis, senior forward and Academic All-America® Tyler McFarland (Rockport, Maine/Camden Hills HS) stuffed the stat sheet with 28 points, 13 rebounds and a career-best seven assists as the Falcons punched their ticket to the finals.  Two-time Academic All-America grad student Keegan Hyland (South Portland, Maine/South Portland HS) came up big in the second half with 16 of his 20 coming after the break. The two teams combined for 33 threes, including 17 by the Skyhawks.

Stonehill's top scorers in the three contests were All-Conference forward Ryan Logan and senior guard Carter Smith, with averages of 21.3 and 18, respectively. Senior guard Adam Bramanti sizzled from deep (13 of 19) while six-eight Pierce Cumpstone averaged a double-double while making 9 of 17 triples.

Hyland and McFarland, as is the norm, were the top scorers for Bentley in the three games, averaging 22.7 and 20.3 respectively.

McFarland, Bentley's leading scorer and rebounder for the fourth straight season, enters the regional on the verge of becoming the program's all-time leading scorer. He needs six to tie and seven to break the school record of 2,103 owned by Bill Holden for the past 26 years. McFarland is also just four field goals away from Jason Westrol's Bentley record of 780.

This season, McFarland is averaging 22.7 points, a tenth of a point shy of the conference lead and the Bentley single season standard. He's connected 65 times from deep, has blocked 53 shots and owns an .898 free throw percentage in 127 trips to the line.

Hyland is the fourth leading scorer in the NE-10, netting 20.7 points per game. He's buried 75 three-pointers, leads the club in assists (92) and steals (34), and collects 7.3 rebounds on average.

The third active Falcon with over 1,000 career points is senior guard Alex Furness (Wells, Maine/Wells HS). He's been outstanding from deep (77-167, .461) and the line (55-60, .917) with his scoring output 14 a game.

Rounding out the starting five for Coach Jay Lawson are junior guard Ferguson Duke (Dartmouth, N.S./Hun School (N.S.)) and sophomore forward Brandon Wheeler (Stamford, Conn./ Trinity Catholic HS). Duke is fourth in scoring (8.4) and Wheeler is the team's third best rebounder (5.9).

The top three off the bench are junior guard Matt Barr (Stratham, N.H./Exeter HS) and freshmen Matt Bouchard (Houlton, Maine/Houlton HS) and Ryan Richmond (Toronto, Ont./Thomson Collegiate). All three play at least 17 minutes a game and the trio combine for about 16 points.

Logan and Smith are the leading scorers for a Stonehill team that has made one more three (312) than Bentley while shooting 41 percent from outside. Logan provides the Skyhawks with 18.1 points and 8.4 rebounds a game while Smith (16.1 ppg) has buried 85 threes with a .451 accuracy rate.

Cumpstone, who has 50 3's, nearly produces a double-double for Stonehill, averaging 14.4 points and 9.8 boards, and Bramanti (10.4) scores about 70 percent of his points from three-point land.

The  Bentley-Stonehill winner will move on to play either Holy Family or Southern New Hampshire Sunday at 7:30. 

The other half of the bracket has third-seeded Southern Connecticut playing number six Saint Thomas Aquinas and number two Saint Anselm pitted against seventh seeded Philadelphia.