Bentley, New Haven to Meet Tuesday at Saint Anselm in NCAA East Region Final
WALTHAM, Mass. – The NCAA Division II Men's Basketball East Region championship and a trip to Evansville, Indiana for the Elite Eight will be on the line Tuesday night when the second-seeded Bentley University Falcons and the fourth-seeded University of New Haven Chargers square off at Saint Anselm College's Stoutenburgh Gymnasium. Tip-off is scheduled to be at 7:30 pm and the game will be streamed over the NE10NOW digital network.
Bentley, a regional finalist for the eighth time since 2005, will be looking to become the East's first repeat champion since 2007 and 2008 when coach Jay Lawson's team went back-to-back. Ranked 25th in the latest NABC Division II coaches poll, the Falcons are 23-8 overall.
New Haven owns a 22-10 record after winning four of its last five and nine of its last 12. The Chargers have been in the regional final only once, an 84-72 loss to eventual national champion University of Lowell in 1988.
Both teams punched their ticket to the Sweet Sixteen with convincing wins in the first two rounds. Bentley led Dominican (N.Y.) in the first round by as many as 26 and was up by as many as 34 in a 73-48 semifinal victory against Southern New Hampshire. New Haven advanced with victories over Pace, 83-57, and Caldwell, 77-56. Bentley's average halftime lead was 20 and New Haven's was 17.
The two teams met once during the regular season, back in mid-January in Waltham, and it was a tale of two halves. Bentley went into the halftime break up 25, 37-12, and scored the first bucket of the second to make it a 27-point advantage. The rest of the game belonged to the Chargers and they stunned the Falcons 60-59 after scoring the game's final ten points and closing with a 48-20 run. Twice in the final 17 seconds, Bentley missed the front end of a one-and-one.
Against Southern New Hampshire on Sunday, Bentley outscored the Penmen 27-9 from outside the arc and 30-16 in the paint while also posting a plus-16 rebound margin. Junior guard Zach Laput (Beacon Falls, Conn./Notre Dame HS) had 19 points and seven rebounds, graduate guard Brian Wright-Kinsey (Brooklyn, N.Y./Brooks School) followed with 16 and nine, and graduate guard Mason Webb (Oklahoma City, Okla./Bishop McGuinness HS) scored 13.
Laput, the Northeast-10 and D2CCA East Region Player of the Year, is three points away from posting the 12th 600-point season in program history, the first since All-America Ryan Richmond in 2019. He leads the conference with a 20.6 scoring average, is second on the team in assists (87) and third in rebounds (6.9). Laput is one of three Falcons shooting at least 40 percent from three, a troika that also includes graduate forward Matt Leritz (St. Louis, Mo./St. Louis University HS) and Wright-Kinsey.
Lawson has gone with an identical starting unit in every game and all own double-figure scoring averages and at least 60 assists. Laput is followed in the scoring column by Leritz (13.), Webb (13.8). junior guard Aaron Latham (Glastonbury, Conn./Glastonbury HS) (10.9) and Wright-Kinsey (10.2).
Off the bench, seniors Kellen Bochenek (Kettering, Ohio/Fairview HS) and Isaac Martin (Atlanta, Ga./Norcross HS) both shoot 36 percent from deep, 18 of 50.
Bentley ranks second in Division II in fewest fouls committed, third in rebound margin, 14th in scoring margin, 15th in field goal percentage and 17th in three-point accuracy.
New Haven is the only team in the country fouls less than the Falcons with the Chargers at 10.7 and Bentley 12.3. Coach Ted Hotaling's team is also third in field goal percentage defense, ninth in defensive rebounds, tenth in scoring defense and 19th in fewest turnovers.
The Chargers are led at the offensive end by senior forward Tyrone Perry, All-Northeast-10 guard Quashawn Lane and junior forward Davontrey Thomas. Perry averages a team-best 15.4 points and buried nine three-pointers in the first-round win over Pace. Lane scores 14.9 and has 131 assists, and Thomas (13.0) has knocked down 83 three-pointers, third most in the league.
The defense is anchored by seven-foot-one Majur Majak, the Division II leader in total rebounds (377) and defensive rebounds per game (9.6) as well as the conference leader in blocks. He's two shy of 100 rejections and averages 3.1 a game. Offensively, his field goal percentage is .629 but he attempts less than five shots a game.
Bentley leads the all-time series, 22-13, but the Chargers have won six of the last seven meetings. Twice during that run, they defeated the Falcons in the conference playoffs, 70-69 in 2019 and 88-82 in double-overtime the following year. Four of the last five have been decided by two points or less, or in overtime.