Bentley Looks to Bounce Back in NE10 Quarterfinals vs. Southern Connecticut
WALTHAM, Mass. – Six days after falling to Southern Connecticut State in the regular season finale, the Bentley University Falcons will get a rematch with the Owls on Sunday on the Dana Center's Barbara Stevens Court in the quarterfinals of the Northeast-10 Conference Men's Basketball Championship. The 3:30 pm game will be streamed live over NE10 NOW.
Bentley, 19-10 and fourth in the latest NCAA Division II East Region rankings, is the number three seed while Southern Connecticut, 20-9 and the sixth seed, comes in after outlasting American International in overtime Friday night, 84-80. Graduate forward Josh McGettigan, who had 23 against Bentley on Tuesday, forced the extra session with a three-ball with five seconds left.
The Falcons and the Owls split the regular season series this year with each winning on the other's homecourt. Back on Jan. 16 in New Haven, Bentley scored the final 15 points to prevail 72-66. Senior guard Zach Laput (Beacon Falls, Conn./Notre Dame HS), who was named to the Trevor Hudgins Award Top 15 Watch List on Friday, led the comeback by scoring 11 of the final 15.
Tuesday's game saw Southern maintain a double-figure lead for the final 29 minutes and make a season-high 14 three-pointers. The Owls, with their second best three-point accuracy rate of the season, outscored the Falcons 42-21 from outside the arc.
In the two games between the two teams this season, the top scorers have been Laput and McGettigan. Laput averaged 26 points against the Owls while shooting .586 overall and making six of ten threes. McGettigan, who spent five seasons at Saint Rose before transferring, averaged 18 points and 7.5 rebounds with no turnovers in nearly 74 minutes against the Falcons.
Remarkably, this will be the first time the two programs will ever meet in a postseason game despite having faced each other 43 times in a series that goes back to the 1981-82 season.
Bentley head coach Jay Lawson, who has led the Falcons to four NE10 tournament titles (2002, 2007, 2008, 2022), has gone with the same starting five all season. Laput, the 11th leading scorer in program history, has been joined by classmates Aaron Latham (Glastonbury, Conn./Glastonbury HS) and Ivan Misic (Toronto, Ont.), graduate wing Kellan Bochenek (Kettering, Ohio/Fairmont HS) and sophomore guard Cash McClure (Readfield, Maine/Maranacook HS) in all 29 games.
Laput, number two in the NE10 in scoring with a 19.7 average, also gives the Falcons 7.1 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.4 steals a game. He's played at least 40 minutes nine times, including both games against the Owls.
McClure's averages of 14.3 points and 7.4 rebounds are both as high as they've been all season following a six-game span in which he's produced 113 points and 47 rebounds.
Bochenek, whose 89 three-pointers are the second most ever by a Falcon in a season, ranks in the top 15 nationally in terms of total threes, threes per game and accuracy from deep (.452). He scores 12.8 points per game and also averages 5.6 rebounds.
Latham, whose career high of nine assists came against Southern in December 2022, averages nearly 12 points and four helpers. Misic's averages are 8.1 points and 4.5 rebounds.
Off the bench, Bentley's top scorer is sophomore forward Joe Carroll (Cedar Grove, N.J./Don Bosco). He's scored in doubles four times in the last seven games and has made 10 or 20 threes since Feb. 7.
Southern has three of the conference's top 20 scorers in
McGettigan (7th, 18.1), sophomore forward Kazell Stewart (19th, 13.9) and junior guard Marty Silvera (20th, 13.6). McGettigan and Stewart both collect about seven rebounds a game, and Silvera is number two in the conference in assists (190).
Sophomore forward Cherif Diarra is the NE10 leader in field goal percentage (.635) and rebounds (9.5), and Diarra and Stewart are the co-leaders in blocks with 48 apiece.
The Falcons and the Owls are 1-2 in the NE10 in scoring with Bentley averaging 80.7 and Southern 79.3. Lawson's team is also first in scoring margin, three-pointers made, three-point accuracy and free throw percentage. Southern, coached by former NBA champion Scott Burrell, leads in rebound margin, steals and offensive rebounds.
Defensively, Bentley ranks second in fewest points allowed and Southern is fifth.
The winner of Sunday's game will face the winner of the Saint Anselm-Adelphi game in the semifinals on Wednesday. The championship game will be played on Saturday.
NORTHEAST-10 CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS
First Round – Friday, March 1
Game 1: #5 So. New Hampshire 105, #12 Franklin Pierce 76
Game 2: #6 So. Connecticut 84, #11 AIC 80 (OT)
Game 3: #7 Saint Anselm 83, #10 New Haven 69
Game 4: #8 Assumption 100, #9 Saint Rose 84
Quarterfinals – Sunday, March 3
Game 5: #8 Assumption at #1 Saint Michaels – 4:00 PM
Game 6: #7 Saint Anselm at #2 Adelphi – 2:30 PM
Game 7: #6 Southern Connecticut at #3 Bentley – 3:30 PM
Game 8: #5 Southern New Hampshire at #4 Pace – 3:00 PM
Semifinals – Wednesday, March 6 (at highest remaining seeds)
Game 9: Game 5 winner vs. Game 8 winner
Game 10: Game 6 winner vs. Game 7 winner
Championship – Saturday, March 9 (at highest remaining seed)