WALTHAM, Mass. – Owners of the longest active winning streak in NCAA Division II East Region men's basketball, the Bentley University Falcons will be seeking their sixth straight victory when they play at Franklin Pierce University Wednesday evening. Fans who can't be in Rindge, N.H. can watch the 7:30 game over the NE10 NOW Digital Network.

Bentley, before closing out the regular season with two home games, will go into its final road contest with records of 18-8 overall and 13-6 Northeast-10, good for second place, two back of conference-leading St. Michael's College. Coach Jay Lawson's team has won five of its last six away from Waltham, including 79-75 at Saint Rose on Saturday.

Franklin Pierce has had a difficult season in Mike Ruane's first year at the helm. The Ravens are 4-21 overall, including 2-17 NE10, and will be seeking their first victory since Jan. 17. They gave Assumption a battle on Saturday but dropped a nail-biter on the road, 79-78, after giving up two free throws with 1.2 seconds left.

In Bentley's win at Saint Rose Saturday, senior guards Aaron Latham (Glastonbury, Conn./Glastonbury HS) and Zach Laput (Beacon Falls, Conn./Notre Dame HS) both came up big for the Falcons. Latham, who played 40 minutes or more for the fifth time this season, had 22 points, five assists, five rebounds and an .850 effective field goal percentage. Laput posted his sixth double-double, finishing with 22 points and 11 boards.

Laput, the only Northeast-10 player named to the Bevo Francis Top 50 and the Trevor Hudgins Top 25 watch lists, is one of four active Division II players with at least 1500 points and 600 rebounds in less than 100 career games. This season, he's averaging 19.8 points, 7.2 rebounds and 4.3 assists.

Three other Falcons are netting at least 12 a game with sophomore guard Cash McClure (Readfield, Maine/Maranacook HS) at 13.7, graduate wing Kellan Bochenek (Kettering, Ohio/Fairmont HS) 13.0 and Latham at 12.1. Bochenek has drained 79 three-pointers this season and is only three away from tying Jasper Grassa for fifth highest single season total in program history.

Each of Bentley's eight rotation players have a positive assist-turnover ratio with the Falcons ranking fifth nationally in that category. Latham, with 100 assists and 48 turns, ranks sixth in the East Region with a 2.17 ratio.

Franklin Pierce's premier scorer and rebounder is six-seven junior Sean Trumper, with averages of 18.8 points and eight rebounds. However he's been out for the last five games. In addition, six-eight sophomore Ugo Nwachukwu, who produces 12 points and 5.7 rebounds a game, has been out for two of the last three.

While Bentley coach Jay Lawson has used the same starting five in each of the first 26 games, 14 different players have started at least once for the Ravens. That includes sophomore guard RJ Delahaye, who scores 10.0 a game and has 27 three-pointers. The team-leader in long distance shooting is sophomore guard Andrew Politi with 48 treys and a .475 accuracy mark from deep.

When the two teams met at the Dana Center last month, Laput had the best scoring performance of his illustrious career, finishing with 35 points in a 111-64 Falcon win. McClure added 22, Bochenek scored 14 and the Falcons had a 65-29 halftime lead.

Bentley, 30-17 all-time against Franklin Pierce, will be looking to sweep the series for the first time since the 2018-19 season.

 After facing the Ravens, Bentley will close out the regular season with home games against Pace on Saturday and Southern Connecticut next Tuesday.