Bentley Selected Preseason Favorite in Northeast-10 Regular Season Title

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

For Immediate Release:

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South Easton, Mass. – After claiming the Northeast-10 Regular Season Title last season, the Falcons of Bentley College are favored to finish first again this year as voted by the men’s basketball coaches. Overall, the Falcons received 224 votes to put them on the top of the preseason coaches’ poll.

Bentley received fourteen first place votes in the poll to finish first in the rankings for the fourth year in a row. Last season the Falcons advanced to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight.

The College of Saint Rose who finished third in the conference last year received 200 points for second place in the rankings. The last first place vote went to Pace University, who finished third with 191 points. The Bulldogs of Bryant University (162) and the Skyhawks of Stonehill College (159) rounded out the top five respectively.

The remainder of the field included, in order, Saint Anselm College (150), American International College (116), Le Moyne College (103), Merrimack College (101), Assumption College (80), Franklin Pierce University (80), The University of Massachusetts Lowell (77), Southern New Hampshire University (73), Saint Michael’s College (68) and Southern Connecticut State University (16).

Last year, Bentley won it’s first Northeast-10 Championship since 2002, defeating Saint Rose before advancing to the NCAA Northeast Regionals. Bentley, along with Bryant, Pace and Saint Rose represented the NE-10 in the NCAA Tournament. The Falcons went on to win their first ever NCAA Regional Championship, advancing to the Elite Eight. Bentley carried a perfect 32-0 record into their match-up with Winona State, whom was undefeated as well but it was Warriors that came out victorious as the Falcon’s magical season came to an end.

The 2007-08 season gets underway on Friday, Nov. 9 as Assumption and Stonehill travel to Orlando, Fla. for the Disney Tip-Off Classic. The Greyhounds will face Philadelphia, while the Skyhawks match-up against Barry. The first conference contests of the new season begin Tuesday, Nov. 20 with seven games slated. The NE-10 Championship starts on March 1 and will conclude with the championship game on March 8.

Sponsoring 23 championship sports and 15 full-time members, the Northeast-10 is the second largest NCAA Division II athletic conference in the nation and sponsors the most championships of any Division II conference.