WALTHAM, Mass. – The first six games of the 2017-18 Bentley University men's basketball season have seen the Falcons post a 5-1 record, including 3-0 in the Northeast-10 Conference while posting a Division II-best 15.7 rebound margin, shooting .515 from the field and outscoring their opponents by more than 25 a game.

Coach Jay Lawson's team will attempt to continue the early-season success on Saturday when they make their annual trip to Vermont to take on St. Michael's College (3:30 pm, www.smcathletics.tv). The home team, 1-5 overall and 1-3 NE10, is coming off its first win, 69-67 over Assumption.

Bentley, in its last game, used 15 three-pointers and a 62-point first half to cruise past Franklin Pierce Wednesday night at the Dana Center. Rebounds favored the Falcons by 11 (47-36), the fourth time this season they've had at least ten more than the opponents, and all of the team's nine turnovers were committed with the point differential 24 points or more.

Falcon junior guard Ryan Richmond (Toronto, Ont./Thomson Collegiate), who finished last season with a school record 45 points at Adelphi, is currently fourth in the conference in scoring, his average at 21.2 overall and 25.7 in NE10 play. In the team's two games surrounding Thanksgiving, he put up 25 at Assumption and 23 in 28 minutes against Franklin Pierce.

Senior forward Brandon Wheeler (Stamford, Conn./Trinity Catholic HS), Bentley's top rebounder (7.8), had his first double-double of the season in the game, finishing with 11 points, 12 rebounds and five assists. For his career, it was his 12th double-double.

Bentley's number two scorer, sophomore guard Seth Stankiewicz (Reading/The Hill School), had 19 on Wednesday, elevating his season norm to 12.8 in a little more than 17 minutes a game. He's buried 15 of 24 from deep (.625, third best in Division II) and is shooting 61 percent overall.

Junior forward Zach Gilpin (Hampden, Maine/Hampden Academy) follows at 12.5 with a .500 shooting mark, and sophomore forward Chris Hudson (Hodgdon, Maine/Williston-Northampton School) is next at 10.5. He's also the team's top offensive rebounder with 19.

Lawson started two freshmen against Pierce with Colton Lawrence (Myerstown, Pa./ECHO HS) joining Jordan Mello-Klein (Sharon/Thayer Academy). Mello-Klein leads Division II in assist-turnover ratio while scoring just over ten a game. Lawrence's scoring average stands at 7.8.

St. Michael's features the NE10's top scorer in junior guard Levi Holmes III. He had 26 on 11-of-16 shooting in the Assumption win and is now putting up 26.5 a game, an increase of more than ten from a year ago. He's shot 51.5 percent overall, including 25 of 50 from outside the arc.

The team's only other double-figure scorer is junior guard Derek Cheatom, who has more than doubled his sophomore year average of 5.5. He's up to 13.7 with a high of 25 against Franklin Pierce.

Collectively, St. Michael's is shooting only .404 while allowing its opponents to connect at a .501 clip, including .435 from three-point territory.

Bentley, one of two NE10 Northeast Division teams without a conference loss entering the week, will host the other on Wednesday when Southern New Hampshire comes into the Dana Center for a 7:30 game.