WALTHAM, Mass. – After facing regionally-ranked teams in its final five games of December, the Bentley University men's basketball team will start out the new month with two more teams considered among the best of the East, beginning Wednesday night in Syracuse, N.Y. against Le Moyne College (7 pm, Ted Grant Court).

A webcast will be available at http://www.lemoynedolphins.com/watch/.

Bentley, 7-5 overall and 4-3 in the Northeast-10, will be looking to bounce back from its second two-point loss of the season, 72-70 at Bridgeport on New Year's Eve day. The Falcons battled back from a 13-point deficit to draw even late, but couldn't get a potential game-winning three to fall in the final seconds.

Le Moyne, ranked first in the latest East Region listings and a top-25 team earlier in the season, will take records of 9-4 overall and 6-0 NE10 into its first home game in 36 days. The Dolphins have lost their last two to national powers, third-ranked Bellarmine University (79-59) and 2017 national finalist Fairmont State (92-68).

Five Northeast-10 players are currently scoring at least 20 points a game, including Bentley junior guard Ryan Richmond (Toronto, Ont./Thompson Collegiate), who is closing in on becoming the 53rd player in program history to reach the 1,000-point milestone. After scoring 21 in the Bridgeport game, he's a three-ball away from achieving the feat.

Richmond, the owner of Bentley's all-time single game scoring mark (45 last February at Adelphi), has seven 20-point games to his credit this season with three of those coming on the road. He's played at least 33 minutes in nine of the last ten games and is currently on, scoring 20.4 a game.

Forwards Zach Gilpin (Hampden, Maine/Hampden Academy) and Chris Hudson (Hodgdon, Maine/Northampton Williston School) are Bentley's other double-figure scorers, beginning the New Year at 13.8 and 10.3, respectively. Gilpin had his third 20-point game of the season Friday in a win over Dominican, finishing with 23, and Hudson averaged 16 points and nine rebounds in two games this past weekend.

Those two, coupled with senior forward Brandon Wheeler (Stamford, Conn./Trinity Catholic HS) and freshman guard Jordan Mello-Klein (Sharon/Thayer Academy), have helped Bentley outrebound the opponents in 10 of 12 games to date. Wheeler averages 7.3 and the other three are all over five a game.

Le Moyne spreads the offense with nine players averaging between 10.7 and 5.6 points. At the top of the list is senior guard Russell Sangster, a second-team All-Northeast-10 pick and the NE10 Defensive Player of the Year following last season. He averages 10.7 points with a .458 field goal percentage.

Tyquan Rolon, another senior guard, follows at 10.4 after coming off the bench to score a season-best 21 against Fairmont State Saturday. Six-foot-eight Robert Jones III has been impressive from three, knocking down 18 of 37 while averaging 8.6 points, and sophomore forward Tom Brown leads the squad in rebounds (6.8).

Scoring for both teams has been down of late. Bentley, hampered by turnovers in the last three games (57 total), has averaged 67.7 points during that span after topping 80 in eight of the first nine. Le Moyne's output has dipped from 73.2 in November to 66.2 in December.               

This week's schedule for coach Jay Lawson's team the first of just three home games this month, Saturday afternoon against The College of Saint Rose.