WALTHAM, Mass. – Coming off an 82-74 win over St. Michael's College earlier in the week, the Bentley University men's basketball will close out its regular season home schedule Saturday at 2 pm with an important Northeast-10 Conference match-up against Merrimack College at the Dana Center (www.bentleyfalcons.tv).

Before taking on the Warriors in the penultimate game of the regular season, Bentley will pay tribute to its three seniors: Brandon Wheeler (Stamford, Conn./Trinity Catholic HS), Matt Turkington (Cromwell, Conn./Cromwell HS) and Nick Burton (Falmouth, Maine/Falmouth HS).

Five teams will qualify for the NE10 championship tournament out of the Northeast Division and there are currently six in the running. Saint Anselm and Merrimack have locked up slots while Bentley is in a battle with Stonehill, Southern New Hampshire and Franklin Pierce for the other three.

The win over the Purple Knights put coach Jay Lawson's team (13-11, 10-9 NE10) alone in fourth place, one game back of third-place Stonehill and one ahead of both SNHU and Franklin Pierce, who play each other Saturday afternoon.

Merrimack (17-9, 13-6 NE10) has its sights on first place with the Warriors a game back of Saint Anselm as the season rapidly winds down.

Two of the Northeast-10's top guards will be on display Saturday, Bentley junior Ryan Richmond (Toronto, Ont./Thomson Collegiate) and Merrimack sophomore Juvaris Hayes.

Richmond scored 30 against St. Michael's, including 18 in the second half, to raise his season norm to 23 a game, third best in the NE10 and on pace to break Ray Andersen's 49-year-old Bentley record of 22.8. Richmond came close to that mark last season, finishing at 22.6, highest ever by a Falcon guard. Since the beginning of January, he's averaged 25.5 a game.

Hayes leads Division II in steals (100) and is second in assists (207) while also averaging 18.7 points and 6.2 rebounds. He's scored at the rate of 22.5 a game over his team's last four games and had seven steals in Wednesday's encounter with Stonehill, his 13th straight game with at least two.

Richmond is generally joined in Bentley's starting unit by Wheeler, junior forward Zach Gilpin (Hampden, Maine/Hampden Academy), sophomore forward Chris Hudson (Hodgdon, Maine/ Northampton Williston School) and freshman guard Jordan Mello-Klein (Sharon/Thayer Academy).

Hudson is coming off a 22-point night against St. Michael's, the eighth straight game he's scored at least 15 and the 12th in a row he's made at least half his shot attempts. For the season, he's shooting .575 from the field, including 18 of 35 outside the arc.

Gilpin (12.1 after scoring 15 against St. Michael's) is Bentley's other double-figure scorer and Mello-Klein has made 12 of 20 shots in the last three games. Wheeler, who'll be playing in his 95 career game and making his 76th start, leads the Falcons in rebounds at 7.2.

Turkington has been in 23 games this season, averaging 2.3 points, and Burton has seen limited action in six contests.

For Merrimack, Hayes is followed in the scoring column by junior forward Ryan Boulter, who has been back for six games after missing ten. He shoots 44 percent from three and is averaging 14.1 points. Since his return, he's been up and down with 13 or more three times and five or less three times.

When these two teams met up in North Andover in December, Merrimack prevailed 72-60 after forcing the Falcons into a season-high 23 turnovers, which led to 30 points off. Hayes came within a steal of a triple-double while Richmond was held to a season-low point total.

After facing the Warriors, Bentley will close out the regular season at Franklin Pierce Tuesday evening.