WALTHAM, Mass. – Women's basketball returns to Barbara Stevens Court Wednesday night when the Bentley University Falcons host the University of New Haven in its Northeast-10 Conference opener. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 pm and the game will be streamed over the NE10 NOW digital network.

Both teams launched their season this past weekend with a pair of wins. Bentley defeated Daemen and Roberts Wesleyan by an average of 25 points and New Haven's average margin in victories over Wilmington (Del.) and Goldey-Beacom was 44.

Last season, the two programs finished fourth and fifth in the Northeast-10 respectively, with the conference tournament champion Falcons 22-10 overall and the Chargers 17-10.

The top scorers for the preseason 16^th-ranked Falcons during the Redhawks Classic were the same duo who led the squad last year, senior forward Maggie Whitmore (South Portland, Maine/South Portland HS) and graduate guard Ella Thompson (Greenwood, Ind./Center Grove HS). Thompson provided 15 points, 4.5 rebounds and four assists a game while Whitmore followed with averages of 14.5 points and 5.5 rebounds.

Junior forward Kylie DuCharme (Wilmington/Wilmington HS) and freshman guard Niya Morgen (Lynn/St. Mary's HS) both had career performances off the bench in Saturday's win over Roberts Wesleyan. DuCharme had 19 points and ten rebounds in 19:23 and Morgen finished with 18 points and seven assists. For the season, both have made nine of 12 shot attempts.

Coach C White's dominated the boards in the two games, outrebounding the opposition by an average of 19 per game.

 New Haven, in the Goldey-Beacom Tip-Off Tournament, gave up only 21 points in a 60-point win over Wilmington and defeated the host team by 28, 65-27.

Six-foot-one sophomore Lindsay Holmes, this week's Player of the Week in the Northeast-10, averaged 26 points in the two wins with her scoring production about five times her norm from last season, 4.9. Her 72 percent shooting included a sizzling 9-of-11 from three-point land.

Graduate forward Aurora DeShaies, a second-team All-Northeast-10 honoree a year ago, averaged 15.5 points and 11 rebounds during the opening weekend. She'll enter Wednesday's game seven points away from 1,000 career.

In the only pairing of the two teams last season, New Haven gained just its sixth win in 37 all-time meetings with the Falcons, 51-49, on a putback by DeShaies with three-tenths of a second to play. Bentley was limited to 33 percent shooting and was held to less than ten points in two of the four quarters.

After facing the Chargers, Bentley will play its next two on the road, at St. Thomas Aquinas Saturday and at American International next Tuesday.