Nov 3, 2005
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South Easton, Mass. - History repeats itself as eleven Northeast-10 mens basketball coaches picked the Falcons of Bentley College to be the favorite to win this years Northeast-10 Regular Season Championship. Overall, the Falcons received 218 votes to put them on the top of the preseason coaches poll.
Bentley, the regular season champion a year ago, matched its total vote count and its eleven first place votes from the preseason poll in 2004 as well, to earn the top spot. The Falcons edged Saint Anselm College, which finished second in the rankings with 207 points and three first place votes.
Southern New Hampshire University followed in third place with 187 points, while The College of Saint Rose (178) and the University of Massachusetts Lowell (154) came in just behind the Penmen to round out the top five.
Bryant University was the recipient of the final first place nod and earned a sixth place spot on the poll with 151 points.
The remainder of the field included, in order, Pace University (140), Stonehill College (111), Merrimack College (105), Le Moyne College (88), Franklin Pierce College (83), American International College (73), Saint Michaels College (44), Assumption College (36) and Southern Connecticut State University (25).
Saint Anselm captured the tournament championship in 2004-05, defeating the top seed Bentley 79-74, in the NE-10 Championship. Both teams and Bryant, Saint Rose and Southern New Hampshire advanced to the NCAA national tournament, where Bryant won the Northeast Regional by defeating Bentley, 74-64. The Bulldogs became the first Northeast-10 school to tally a win in an Elite Eight game when they defeated Tarleton State 60-55 before bowing to Virginia Union in the National Championship game 63-58.
The season gets underway on November 15 when NE-10 teams Assumption, Bryant, Pace and Saint Rose take on regional NYCAC rivals in New Haven, Adelphi, Molly and Saint Thomas Aquinas, respectively. The regular season opens on November 19 with three conference contests set to take place. The Northeast-10 tournament begins on February 25 with first round games, followed by the quarterfinals on February 27, the semifinals on March 2 and the title game on March 4.
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.
