WALTHAM, Mass. – Officially, the Northeast-10 Conference Men's Basketball Championship tournament begins Friday night.

However, for the Bentley University Falcons, it essentially gets underway Tuesday night when the Falcons close out the regular season with a 7:30 pm game at Merrimack College. A free webcast will be available at www.merrimackathletics.tv.

Following a 91-85 win over Saint Anselm College Saturday, coach Jay Lawson's team will head to Merrimack in fifth place in the Northeast-10's Northeast Division with a one-game lead over Stonehill College in the battle for the fifth and final postseason berth. 

Depending on the outcome of that one, along with eighth-place St. Michael's at Stonehill and Franklin Pierce at seventh-place Assumption, Bentley could be seeded fourth or fifth in the championships, or fail to qualify.

With a win, Bentley is in as at least the fifth seed and could be number four if Assumption upsets Franklin Pierce. With a loss, the Falcons would need Stonehill to lose to St. Michael's in order to have the season continue.

The Falcons, 13-12 overall and 10-10 NE10, have taken control of their own destiny by winning their last two and four of their last five. In Saturday's game, the Falcons closed with a 10-2 spurt for the much-needed victory.

Leading the way was sophomore guard Ryan Richmond (Toronto, Ont./Thomson Collegiate) who put up a 25-point second half on 9-of-14 shooting and finished with 34 overall. Sophomore forward Kyle Bouchard (Houlton, Maine/Houlton HS) also had a productive game with his 18 points matching his career-best.

Richmond has boosted his season norm to 21.6 after averaging 24.4 points over the last ten games. During that stretch, the six-footer has shot 48 percent overall, 42 percent from three and 89 percent at the line.

Junior forward Brandon Wheeler (Stamford, Conn./Trinity Catholic HS) has averaged 14.1 points, 9.9 rebounds and two steals over the last eight games, a stretch in which he's shot the ball at a 54 percent success rate. For the season, he's on target to become the first Falcon to average at least nine rebounds since 1994-95.

Senior guards Matt Barr (Stratham, N.H./Cushing Academy) and Ferguson Duke (Dartmouth, N.S./Hun School (N.J.)) both have scoring averages hovering around ten a game with Barr slightly above and Duke slightly below. Barr is seventh in the NE10 in three-point accuracy (.443) and Duke has put up a similar percentage over the last 11 games (17/38, .447).

Merrimack will  be playing for a first-round bye in the upcoming conference championships, which the Warriors can attain with a win. The Warriors, currently tied for second, are 18-9 overall and 12-8 conference after dropping three of their last four. Included was an 81-69 loss at Franklin Pierce on Saturday.

The Warriors' offense features one of the most prolific three-point shooters in the NE10, six-foot-six sophomore Ryan Boulter, and one of the conference's top freshmen, point guard Juvaris Hayes. Boulter has connected 88 times from deep while averaging a team-best 18.3 points. Hayes leads the NE10 in assists (252) and steals (74) while averaging 13.8 points and 6.3 rebounds. He shoots 50 percent from the floor and is third in the NE10 in free throws, making 4.6 a game.

Bentley and Merrimack will be seeing each other for the first time since Nov. 16 when the Warriors held the Falcons to a season-low 61 points in a seven-point win. Troy McLaughlin sparked Merrimack off the bench with five three-pointers and 25 points, and Anthony Barry (16) points came within one rebound of a double-double. Bentley was forced into 22 turnovers and made only 7 of 27 three-pointers.