Bentley goes the distance
3-point show send Falcons back to Elite 8
WALTHAM - The road to Springfield is a rather nondescript two-hour drive down the Massachusetts Turnpike from the Bentley campus.
But the journey for the Bentley men's basketball team, and a return trip to the Elite Eight is, quite simply, historic. And a signature moment for New England college basketball.
Its perfect 33-0 run - which breaks the Falcons' New England-record, 32-game winning streak they put up last season - has been built on poise, a balanced and explosive offense, the ability to dig in defensively, and yes, a little luck.
The latest highlight - an intense 88-72 victory over Northeast-10 rival Assumption in last night's NCAA Division 2 Northeast Regional final in front of a standing-room crowd of 3,323 at the Dana Center - was hard-earned, and one to savor.
The Falcons built a 16-point halftime cushion with a rain shower of 3-pointers, and when an experienced and rugged Assumption squad made a determined run in the second half, Bentley hung in, gathered its legs, and pulled away for its fourth double-digit win over the Greyhounds this season.
Riding a remarkable 63-game winning streak against Northeast foes, top-ranked Bentley is headed to Springfield for the second straight year. The Falcons will play South Regional champ North Alabama in a national quarterfinal next Wednesday; North Alabama beat Benedict, 97-75, last night.
For one night, however, the Falcons let it soak in.
"Does everyone understand how silly, ridiculous, crazy this is?" asked Bentley coach Jay Lawson. "That we broke a 50-year-old New England winning streak record set by Bob Cousy's [Holy Cross] team last year? I told the team that it won't be broken ever during my lifetime. And we just broke it ourselves the following year. We should have played the lottery or something."
Just keep shooting, and playing, with confidence.
Redshirt freshman Mike Quinn (career-high 18 points, 4 of 5 on threes) drained the first dagger of the game, and the Falcons kept converting their open looks, connecting on 50 percent of their treys in the first half, and finishing the night a sizzling 14 of 28.
If it wasn't Quinn, it was sophomore guard Jason Westrol (22 points, 3 of 7 on treys). Or senior forward Nate Fritsch (17 points, 4 of 8). Or senior point Yusuf Abdul-Ali (15 points). Or junior wing Lew Finnegan (10 points, 2 of 5).
"It was nice to come out and hit that first shot," said Quinn. "Yusuf and Jason go to the rim so well, and Nate, too, that [defenders] have to help. They have to double, so I'm going to get some open looks."
Fritsch added, "We shoot [the three] aggressively, when we're open. We try to take it to the hoop, and if they're taking that away, we try to kick it out. They went in for us."
Assumption coach Serge DeBari, whose team finished a stellar turnaround season at 24-11, conceded, "Maybe I made a mistake, basing our game plan on not letting them post us up inside. The previous three games, they continually beat us inside.
"We knew that we were playing with fire. But when you have all the weapons, you have to pick your poison."
Assumption chipped away in the second half, closing within 4, 64-60, on a transition jumper from its leader, 6-foot-4-inch senior captain Greg Twomey (team-high 20 points, 8 rebounds) with eight minutes left. But the 6-3 Westrol (who filled out his impressive stat line with 6 rebounds, 6 assists, and 5 steals in a team-high 36 minutes) answered with a three from the wing, and Assumption never inched any closer.
Finnegan and Quinn drilled triples and the Falcons closed it out at the free throw line.
"They really started making some shots from the perimeter," said Lawson. "Those were character shots, mostly by Greg Twomey, and they started pressuring us on the glass, and they got back in the game."
"[But] anyone that has watched this group in the last year or two, our poise to just play, and sustain things, whether we're ahead or behind, is outstanding."
In the first half, the Falcons nailed six treys in the first 10 minutes, the last by Fritsch off a tip-out by freshman Tommy Dowling, for a 22-10 spread. When Abdul-Ali capped his own 7-point run with a three - following a finish off a Fritsch feed and a ridiculous spinning reverse layup - Bentley surged ahead, 37-23.
"Just to get back [to Springfield] is lucky, unique, and special," said Lawson after coaching his 500th game at Bentley.
Craig Larson can be reached at clarson@globe.com
