Early Season Lead in Northeast-10 Up for Grabs Wednesday when Bentley Visits UMass-Lowell

WALTHAM, Mass. -- Although most have played only three conference games thus far, only two Northeast-10 Conference men’s basketball teams have an NE-10 record with a zero in the loss column, the Bentley University Falcons and the UMass-Lowell River Hawks.
              
That number will be cut in half Wednesday night when Bentley makes the trip up Route 3 to take on UMass-Lowell, the only remaining NCAA Division II East Region team with an unblemished overall record.  Tip-off at Costello Gymnasium is 7:30 pm.
              
Bentley has won its first three conference games, yielding just 50 points a game while besting Merrimack, Saint Anselm and Southern New Hampshire. UMass-Lowell has two NE-10 victories, a 71-54 win over St. Michael’s and a two-pointer at Southern New Hampshire.
              
Overall, both clubs have won four in a row with the Falcons 4-2 on the year and the River Hawks 4-0.
              
This will be the first meeting between the two programs since UMass-Lowell upended the Falcons, 76-63 in the quarterfinals of the 2010 Northeast-10 playoffs last March. Five different players scored in doubles as the seventh-seed bounced number two Bentley en route to winning the conference championship.
              
Bentley is coming off a 54-50 win over Southern New Hampshire Sunday, a game in which the Falcons scored the final six points, closed with a 12-2 run over the final six minutes, and allowed only 16 second-half points.
              
All three of Bentley’s NE-10 opponents have been held to a field goal percentage under .360 and to 53 points or fewer.  In five of the six halves, coach Jay Lawson’s team has given up less than 30 points.
              
Sophomore guard Greg Jacques (Brockton/St. Sebastian’s HS) made his first career start Sunday and registered career-bests in points (19), rebounds (6) and assists (4). Five days earlier, he provided a spark off the bench in an 83-53 win over Saint Anselm, erupting for 16 points in as many minutes. The productive week boosted his scoring average to 10.7, third best on the team.
              
The only Bentley players producing more points are senior forward Brian Tracey (Bow Mar, Colo./Heritage HS) and guard Mike Quinn (Oakdale, Conn./Montville HS), a grad student. Tracey, who missed the SNHU game with a minor injury, is second in the NE-10 at 21 points a game, and Quinn gives the Falcons 13 points, 5.7 rebounds, three assists and 2.5 steals a game.
              
UMass-Lowell has lost leading scorer and player Scott Tavares-Taylor due to a knee injury, but still has a number of talented young players. Tavares-Taylor, before being sidelined, was averaging 16 points and 4.7 assists.
              
Sophomore forward Matt Welch and freshman guard Aikeem Williams follow in the scoring column, with averages of 13.5 and 12.8 points, respectively. Welch has drilled half of his 20 attempts from three-point land and Williams has scored in doubles in each of his first four collegiate games. Junior Herman Honore was 10-of-10 from the field at SNHU and has 31 points in only 28 minutes this season.
              
After facing Lowell, Bentley will return to the Dana Center for home games against Franklin Pierce Saturday and Stonehill next Wednesday.