WALTHAM, Mass. – Three days after dropping a 91-86 decision at Saint Anselm College, the Bentley University men's basketball team will be back in the Granite State Saturday afternoon, taking on undefeated Southern New Hampshire University at 3:30 pm.

Both NESN Plus and NESN National will televise the game live from the SNHU Fieldhouse.

The loss at Saint Anselm was Bentley's second straight and dropped the Falcons to 4-3 overall and 2-2 NE10. Coach Jay Lawson's team is in a four-way tie for third in the conference, one-and-a-half games back of co-leaders SNHU and Merrimack College (both 3-0).

Southern New Hampshire, 5-0 overall and ranked 25th in the NABC Division II coaches poll, stayed unbeaten by the slimmest of margins in its last outing, edging Assumption College 72-71 after trailing by as many as eight in the second half.

Sophomore guard Ryan Richmond (Toronto, Ont./Thomson Collegiate) is coming off an impressive three-game stretch for the Falcons, one in which he's elevated his season averages to 20.3 points and 6.1 rebounds. He's totaled 75 points in the three contests, including a career-high 32 at Saint Anselm, and has also recorded his first career double-double (21 points, 13 rebounds at Dominican).

Another sophomore, forward Zach Gilpin (Hampden, Maine/Hampden Academy), became the third Falcon this season to post a double-double in his last contest. He came off the bench to contribute 14 points and 12 rebounds, both career-bests, in 23 minutes. For the season, he's averaging 8.5 points.

The other double-doubles belong to junior forward Brandon Wheeler (Stamford, Conn./Trinity Catholic HS), who opened the season with two in a row. He's currently producing 10.4 points and a team-best 6.7 rebounds a game.

Bentley will travel to SNHU for a rematch of the 2016 NE-10 title game (won by the Penmen in Waltham 90-87) third in the NE10 in three-point accuracy (.419), fifth in scoring (81.9) and sixth in field goal percentage (.471). The Falcons have made only 11 of 39 threes in the last two games after averaging 10.8 triples during the first five contests.

Speaking of threes, the Falcons will be looking to extend their NCAA Division II record of consecutive games with at least one to 800. The current 799-game streak dates back 28 seasons to December 1989.

Southern New Hampshire, under longtime head coach Stan Spirou, features a talented starting five, one that has accounted for 88 percent of the team's scoring, 34 of the club's 37 three-pointers and 80 percent of the playing time.  

Red-shirt junior forward Chris Walters, a third-team All-Conference pick last season, leads the Penmen in scoring with a 20.6 average and is only two rebounds shy of averaging a double-double. Senior forward Devin Gilligan has also been productive, giving SNHU 17 points and 8.6 rebounds a game.

Southern New Hampshire is among the NE-10 leaders on defense, giving up 70.8 points on average while holding the opponents to percentages of .420 overall and .303 from three.  The Penmen limit the opposition to less than 14 free throw attempts a game and have allowed only 33 three-pointers in five games.

Next week's schedule includes a Wednesday home game with St. Michael's and a Saturday contest at Stonehill, the final two conference games of 2017.