WALTHAM, Mass. – Seventeen days following their last contest, the Bentley University men's basketball team will resume a stretch of six straight games against regionally-ranked opponents Friday afternoon when the Falcons host Dominican College (N.Y.) in a 3 pm game at the Dana Center. A free webcast will be provided at www.bentleyfalcons.tv for those unable to attend.

The Dominican game, Bentley's first since Dec. 12, will be the first of three in six days for coach Jay Lawson's squad. The next two will be on the road, Sunday at the University of Bridgeport and Jan. 3 at Le Moyne College.

Before the holiday and exam break, Bentley slipped from 6-1 to 6-4 with losses to second-ranked Southern New Hampshire, seventh-ranked Saint Anselm and number five Merrimack. All rankings are based on voting by D2SIDA.

Dominican will come into Waltham as the eighth-ranked team in the East, Bridgeport is currently number three, and Le Moyne tops the East region rankings. The Chargers, following a 7-1 start, are 8-3 overall after splitting a pair of games in Florida Dec. 18-19.

In its most recent game, Bentley committed an uncharacteristic 23 turnovers, resulting in 30 points off for Merrimack in a 72-60 Warrior victory. Prior to then, Lawson's club had averaged only 10.4 giveaways in the season's first nine games.

Junior guard Ryan Richmond (Toronto, Ont./Windward School) will begin the Dominican game 41 points away from becoming the 53rd member of Bentley's 1,000-point club. This season, he's giving the Falcons a team-best 20.7 points per game, a production rate that ranks fourth in the Northeast-10 Conference.

Richmond was quiet in the Merrimack game with his 10 points and nine shot attempts both season lows.

The Merrimack game featured a 12-point, 12-rebound double-double from senior forward Brandon Wheeler (Stamford, Conn./Trinity Catholic HS), his second of the season and 13th of his career. He's made at least half his shot attempts in four of the last five games and is averaging 8.3 points and a team-best 6.9 rebounds.

Junior forward Zach Gilpin (Hampden, Maine/Hampden Academy) is second to Richmond in scoring at 13.1 while sophomore guard Seth Stankiewicz (Reading, Pa./Hill School) and freshman guard Jordan Mello-Klein (Sharon/ Thayer Academy) are both scoring just under ten a game.

Stankiewicz (9.9 ppg) has come off the bench to shoot nearly 60 percent from three and Mello-Klein's first ten collegiate games have seen him produce on average 9.7 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists.

Dominican features a trio of double-figure scorers, including sophomore guards Daraja Rodwell and Daniel Grant who own identical 14.5 averages. Rodwell leads the Chargers in three-pointers (14) and steals (18) while Grant has 42 assists, a third of his team's total.

Six-foot-five junior Ian Gardener, one of three Dominican players collecting at least five rebounds a game, follows with a 13.9 scoring average.

Like Bentley and Dominican, Bridgeport had a slight slide before the break, suffering losses to Roberts Wesleyan and Saint Anselm in a three-game span to fall to 9-3. Before taking on the Falcons on Sunday, the Purple Knights will host Stonehill Saturday afternoon.

Le Moyne, also off to a 9-3 start, will visit Fairmont State before taking on Bentley on Wednesday.