WALTHAM, Mass. – The battle for first place in the Northeast-10 Conference men's basketball will resume Saturday when the Bentley University Falcons, the number 16 ranked team in Division II, host Pace University. Game time at the Dana Center is 3:30 pm and as always, it will be available online at NE10NOW.tv.

Entering Saturday, Bentley is in a three-way tie for the top spot with Saint Anselm and Southern New Hampshire, with New Haven only a half-game back in fourth place. Other games on the slate involving the leaders have Saint Anselm at Franklin Pierce, Saint Rose at Southern New Hampshire and New Haven at Assumption.

Bentley, which has lost consecutive games for the first time since the end of the 2019-20 season, will begin a two-game homestand at 17-4 overall and 12-4 NE10. The most recent blemish came at Adelphi Tuesday when the Falcons fell to the Panthers, 86-80.

In that one, junior guards Aaron Latham (Glastonbury, Conn./Glastonbury HS) and Zach Laput (Beacon Falls, Conn./Notre Dame HS) each scored 20 for the Falcons, but Bentley was never able to overtake the Panthers after falling behind with 5:20 left in the first half.

While Bentley is on a two-game slide, Pace has won its last two to improve to 16-8 overall and 8-8 conference. Before defeating Saint Anselm and Southern Connecticut State, the Setters had an eight-game winning streak from Dec. 8-Jan. 10 and a five-game losing streak from Jan. 14-28.

This will be the second meeting of the season between the two programs. In early December in New York, the Falcons prevailed 73-67 in a wire-to-wire victory. Bentley built a 60-40 lead before Pace closed the gap down the stretch. Laput buried five of seven from downtown and led all scorers with 20 points.

All five Bentley starters continue to own double-figure scoring averages with Laput's 20.3 number one in the NE10. No one in the conference gets to the line as often as he does, and he's had 15 20-point games.

Also in doubles for the Falcons are Latham, graduate forward Matt Leritz (St. Louis, Mo./St. Louis University HS) and graduate guards Mason Webb (Oklahoma City, Okla./Bishop McGuinness HS) and Brian Wright-Kinsey (Brooklyn, N.Y./Brooks School).

Bentley, which has outrebounded its opponents by an average of 9.5 per game, has three of the Northeast-10's top ten rebounders. Leritz is second at 8.9, Wright-Kinsey fifth (7.6) and Laput tenth (6.7).

Leritz (.609), Laput (.536) and Latham (.514) are three of the 14 NE10 players who have made at least half their field goal attempts.

For the season, Bentley has outscored their opponents by nearly 12 points a game and has a .500 field goal percentage. Defensively, the Falcons hold their opponents to 42 percent shooting overall and 33 percent from deep.

Pace is led by the Powell twins, 6-foot-6 forward Bryan and 6-foot-3 guard Brandon. Brandon has knocked down 62 three-pointers and is averaging a team-best 15.6 points. Bryan is the more accurate shooter of the two and is averaging 13.9 points, five assists and 2.3 assists.

Bentley leads the all-time series, 27-11, and has won seven of the last nine meetings.

Coach Jay Lawson's team will also be at home on Wednesday with The College of Saint Rose providing the opposition.