Outstanding Bentley Season Comes to End in National Semifinals as Falcons Fall to Cal Poly Pomona

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- The Bentley University Falcons put up a battle all night, but in the end, they saw an outstanding season come to an end as they fell to Cal Poly Pomona, 71-63, Thursday night in the semifinals of the NCAA Division II Elite Eight at the MassMutual Center.

"We had an awesome, spectacular season," said Bentley coach Jay Lawson following the game. "We came into the Elite Eight undefeated twice, and that's ridiculous. But this season was better than those in terms of what we had and what we achieved."

Bentley finished the season at 26-7 and the Jason Westrol era with an amazing four-year mark of 118-16. Westrol, a senior guard out of Brielle, N.J. and the Division II Player of the Year, concluded his career with 2,068 points, three Elite Eight trips, a number of school records, a whole collection of accolades and even more wins.

"He's the best player we've had in the time I've been here," praised Lawson, whose Bentley tenure encompasses a quarter-century, the last 19 as head coach. "We're not going to get another player like him for 50 years."

Westrol finished with 15 points on 4-of-16 shooting in his final collegiate game, but Lawson attributes that to the Bronco defense.

"Their defense (a match-up zone) was perfect to guard a player like Westrol."

Six-foot-five senior guard Austin Swift (Santa Cruz, Calif.), a transfer from Montana, led the Broncos into the national championship game (Saturday vs. Indiana, Pa.) for the second straight year with a game-high 22 points, half of those coming during a late 20-8 run after the two clubs were tied at 50 midway through the second half.

With the score even at 50, Swift put his team in front for good when he buried a long three to beat the 35-second clock with 9:29 left. That proved to be the start of a 7-0 run which also included a put-back by junior forward Donnelle Booker and a Swift jumper.

Bentley junior forward Brian Tracey (Bow Mar, Colo./Heritage) answered with a top-of-the-key three-pointer with 6:41 left, drawing the Falcons to within four at 57-53.  That proved to be the team's final basket until the clock had gone under a minute, by which time CPP had stretched the lead to double figures.

Tracey's triple was matched by the Broncos' Dahir Nasser (Phoenix, Ariz.) with 4:37 to play, and Bentley got back within five when senior guard John Brandt (Pawtucket, R.I./Wheeler School) hit a pair of free throws with 3:51 on the clock.

It remained at 60-55 until junior guard Mark Rutledge (Sacramento, Calif.) nailed two free throws for Cal Poly with 1:14 left. Tracey sank one of two from the stripe 10 seconds left to reduce the deficit to six, but following a Bronco timeout, came a play that essentially locked up the outcome.

Sophomore Matthew Rosser (Temecula, Calif.) was on the receiving end of a long inbound pass from 250-pound classmate Dwayne Fells (Fullerton, Calif.). He slammed it through the basket, was fouled on the play and converted the three-point play to make it 65-56 with just about a minute left.

Five of seven free throws by Swift the rest of the way denied any chance of the Falcons pulling a last-minute miracle.

Tightly contested for much of the first half, Cal Poly went into the break up eight after closing the half with a 9-0 run over the final 3:30.

Bentley turned things back around at the start of the second, scoring eight unanswered in the first 1:41 to even the contest at 34. Tracey had the first five, including a top of the key three-ball, and Brandt buried the tying three from the right side.

The Falcons grabbed their final lead of the season when Tracey hit an open three with 14:19 left, off a pass from Westrol, but the Broncos quickly answered as freshman Mitchel Anderson (Temecula, Calif.) connected from long range.

Cal Poly, which lost in overtime in last year's title game, shot 51 percent from the field and also came up with a dozen second-chance opportunities as they took advantage of their length.

They hit more from the perimeter than they usually do, some with a hand in their face," said Lawson.

Tracey, who eclipsed the 1,000-point milestone with his three to start the second half scoring, led Bentley's scoring with 17 points and completed his 11th double-double with 11 boards. Westrol followed with 15, Brandt had 11 in his final game as a collegian and junior guard Mike Quinn (Oakdale, Conn./Montville HS) added 10. All of his came during an early 13-4 Falcon run that put the Falcons up four at 19-17.

"It was a well-played game," said Bronco coach Greg Kamansky. "It was tough and hard-nosed for 40 minutes, and we were fortunate to pull it out."
 

NCAA DIVISION II ELITE EIGHT SEMIFINALS
At Springfield, Mass. (MassMutual Center)

CAL POLY POMONA 71, BENTLEY 63

BENTLEY (26-7) -- Brian Tracey 6-10 1-3 17; Jason Westrol 4-16 6-7 15; John Brandt 3-6 3-4 11; Mike Quinn 4-9 0-0 10; Greg Jacques 3-5 0-0 8; Kevin Kettl 1-1 0-0 2; Joe Fremeau 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 21-50 10-14 63.

CAL POLY POMONA (27-6) -- Swift, Austin 6-11 8-10 22; Nasser, Dahir 5-7 0-0 11; Jahn, Tobias 5-10 1-2 11; Anderson, Mitchel 4-5 0-0 10; Booker, Donnelle 3-9 0-1 6; Rosser, Matthew 2-3 1-1 5; Fells, Dwayne 2-6 0-0 4; Rutledge, Mark 0-2 2-2 2; Norum, Shaun 0-0 0-0 0; Ryan, Kevin 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 27-53 12-16 71.

Halftime: CPP 34-26; 3-point goals--B 11-25 (Tracey 4-6; Jacques 2-3; Quinn 2-6; Brandt 2-5; Westrol 1-5), CPP 5-13 (Anderson 2-2; Swift 2-5, Nasser 1-1; Rosser 0-1; Rutledge 0-1; Booker 0-3). Fouled out---None. Rebounds--B 26 (Tracey 11), CPP 34 (Booker 8). Assists--B 14 (Westrol 7), CPP 10 (Swift 3). Total fouls--B 15, CPP 15. Technical fouls--None. A-2194