WALTHAM, Mass. – After a pair of road losses to two of the top teams in the Northeast-10 Conference's Southwest Division, the Bentley University men's basketball team will be back in the Dana Center Wednesday night, taking on Stonehill College in the first of seven straight against Northeast Division teams.

Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 pm with a free webcast available at www.bentleyfalcons.tv.

The Dana Center has been good to coach Jay Lawson's team so far this season with the Falcons having earned eight of their nine wins to date on their homecourt. Included are five straight wins, including a 79-71 win over Le Moyne College ten days ago.

Wednesday's game could potentially be an important one for Bentley in terms of seeding for the conference championships down the road. Five teams qualify out of the Northeast Division and the Falcons are currently tied for fifth place with Stonehill, both with 6-8 conference records. Head-to-head competition is the first criteria when it comes to breaking ties and Stonehill won the first meeting with Bentley, 82-80 back on Dec. 10.

In that one, played down in Easton, Bentley climbed back from a 23-point second half deficit to forge a tie before coming up just short when the Skyhawks received two free throws with 1.9 seconds left. Sophomore forward Zach Gilpin (Hampden, Maine/Hampden Academy) made his first collegiate start for the Falcons and responded with a team-best 20 points. Stonehill dominated in the paint, 50-22, while Bentley had the advantage in three-pointers (10-5) and free throws (16-9).

Bentley, 9-10 overall, will be looking to bounce back from Saturday's 79-67 loss to Southern Connecticut State, one in which it suffered through a season-low 31 percent shooting performance. That followed accuracy marks of .519 and .521 in the previous two games.

Sophomore guard Ryan Richmond (Toronto, Ont./Thomson Collegiate) continues to have a strong offensive season for the Falcons. He's one of six 20-point-per-game scorers in the conference after putting up 22.4 a game in January. The six-footer leads the NE10 in free throws made and has the best free throw percentage (.851) among the top 15 scorers.

Gilpin and junior forward Brandon Wheeler (Stamford, Conn./Trinity Catholic HS) are Bentley's other double-figure scorers, averaging 12.9 and 11.7 respectively. Gilpin has averaged 16.5 since the last Stonehill game and Wheeler has collected 10.7 rebounds a game during that same span.

Stonehill, 11-9 overall, is coming off a 97-71 thrashing of Saint Rose after dropping five of its previous six. In that one, the Skyhawks shot 60 percent, knocked down 12 of 21 three-pointers, scored 24 points off 18 turnovers and placed all five starters in double figures.

Stonehill will come into the Dana Center owning a .501 field goal percentage, tied for the NE10's best, with four rotation players over that mark. All-Conference senior forward Ryan Logan leads the team in scoring at 17.2 ppg, Marist transfer KJ Lee has made 57 percent of his shots while averaging 12.6 points, and freshman forward Daniel Largey (11.1 ppg) has been outstanding from three, making 52 of 96 for a .541 success rate.

This week's schedule also includes a road game against Assumption College on Saturday afternoon.