WALTHAM, Mass. – Two of the top four teams in Northeast-10 Conference women's basketball will square off Wednesday night at the Dana Center when the Bentley University Falcons take on the visiting Pace University Setters at 5:30 pm. Fans who can't make it to the game can watch on the NE10 NOW Digital Network.

Bentley, which has won six of its last eight games, owns records of 9-4 overall and 7-2 in the Northeast-10, good for second place in the Northeast Division. The Falcons, whose four losses have been to teams with a combined record of 48-8, are coming off a pair of wire-to-wire wins, 60-40 at Saint Rose and a shocking 91-43 against American International.

Pace, who handed coach Carrie Seymour her 500^th career win Saturday, are the co-leaders, with Le Moyne College, in the Southwest Division. The Setters are 14-2 overall, including 9-1 conference. Both of their losses have come on the road, 56-44 at Bridgeport Dec. 3 and 55-41 at Le Moyne Jan. 5. In this week's D2CCA media poll, they moved into the top 25 at number 22.

In Saturday's win over AIC, Bentley limited the Yellow Jackets to 12 first-half points, more than doubled the visitors on the boards (46-18) and shot nearly 60 percent in the lop-sided victory. Five different Falcons scored in doubles, including freshman guard Amanda Kabantu (Portland, Maine/ Portland HS).

Kabantu, who became the fourth different player in as many games this month to lead the Falcons in scoring, erupted for a career-best 22 points and also gave the Falcons nine rebounds and four assists. She's fifth on the team in scoring, averaging 6.4 points.            

Bentley's top scorer for the season is junior guard and former NE10 Rookie of the Year Ella Thompson (Greenwood, Ind./Center Grove HS). She averages 13.8 points and leads the Falcons in threes (31), assists (34) and free throw percentage (.882).

Graduate forward Autumn Ceppi (Bedford/Dana Hall School) follows at 12.5 points per game. A member of last year's All-Defensive Team in the Patriot League, she is the Falcons' top rebounder (7.2) as well as the team leader in both steals and blocks.

Sophomore guard Maggie Whitmore (South Portland, Maine/South Portland HS) has been a key performer in the last two games, averaging 12.5 points and 6.5 rebounds while shooting 59 percent. Her 13 points against AIC matched her career best.

Bentley, 9-0 when scoring at least 60 points, is third in the NE10 in scoring at 68.7 points and second, behind only Pace, in scoring defense. The Falcons lead the conference in field goal percentage (.440) while the Setters are number one in field goal percentage defense (.353).

Pace features the NE10 scoring leader in graduate forward Lauren Schletter, a 2019-20 second-team All-Conference selection who has 1,432 career points. She averages 21.9 points and 8.4 rebounds, and is coming of a career-high 31-point afternoon against St. Michael's.

Next on the scoring list for the Setters is senior guard Lauren Hackett. She scores 9.6 a game and is fourth in the conference in assists.

Bentley leads the all-time series 31-17 and has bested the Setters nine straight times overall. Pace has come up short 12 straight times in the Dana Center, their last win coming in the 2001 NCAA East Region championship game.

On Saturday, the Falcons will make their biannual trek to Long Island to face Adelphi University.

In a couple schedule updates, Bentley will host St. Michael's on Thursday, Feb. 10 at 5:30 pm, a make-up from the postponed game of Jan. 5. The Falcons were scheduled to play New Haven that day in a make-up, but that one has now been moved to Monday, Feb. 14 at 5:30 pm.