Men's Basketball Falls To Bentley In Tight Game Of NCAA First Round East Regional, 74-60
Box Score
WALTHAM, Mass. (March 12, 2011) – Both C.W. Post and Bentley University shot 42.6 percent from the field and gathered 36 rebounds, but Bentley's 9-for-20 shooting from three-point range as well as 13-for-14 shooting from the free throw line was the difference as the top-seeded Falcons fended off the eight-seeded Pioneers in the first round of the NCAA Men's Basketball East Regional with a 74-60 win Saturday evening at the Dana Center.
Bentley advances to the semifinal round and will play the winner of tonight's game between UMass Lowll and Saint Rose on Sunday at 8:30 p.m. C.W. Post closes out its season with a 21-10 record - its fourth straight 20-win season.
Junior guard Stefan Bonneau's (Middletown, N.Y.) three-point play at 14:29 tied the game at 12-12, and Aaron Hall's (Syracuse, N.Y.) three at 13:55 gave CWP its first lead of the game, 15-14. Bentley's next trip down the floor resulted in three offensive rebounds, but four missed Falcon shots, giving the Pioneers possession and Bonneau converted a layup at 12:42 to put CWP up 17-14.
A Vaughn Allen (Mount Vernon, N.Y.) layup at 11:29 gave CWP a 19-14 edge, but on the next Bentley possession Brian Tracey hit a three and cut the lead back to two, 19-17. Mike Quinn's layup at 10:40 tied the game at 19 apiece, and his three-pointer at 9:56 put Bentley back up, 22-19. The teams exchanged baskets on subsequent possessions, and Bentley held a 26-23 edge with 8:22 to play.
Jonathan Kohler's (Bordentown, N.J.) layup at 7:11 pulled CWP to within one, 26-25, and a Bentley turnover led to an Allen layup that gave the Pioneers a 27-26 lead with 6:42 to play. But Greg Jacques hit a three for the Falcons to put them right back on top, 29-27. A Sam Leclerc three-pointer increased the lead to 32-27, but CWP answered right back as Allen converted two free throws at 5:36 to keep the game close, 32-29.
Gil Montalvo (Astoria, N.Y.) drained a jumper at 4:55 to cut the lead to a point, 32-31. A Bentley jumper followed by two Falcon free throws made it 36-31 with 2:13 to play, but CWP continued to battle at responded with two free throws by freshman forward Amir Tarif (New York, N.Y.), cutting the lead to three, 36-33, with less than two minutes remaining in the first half. But Quinn nailed a jumper in the paint at just over the one minute mark and pushed the Bentley lead back to five, and a Pioneer turnover with 2.6 seconds remaining made Bentley's 38-33 advantage stand up heading into halftime.
Bentley opened the second half of play with a dunk by Tracey, pushing out to a seven-point advantage, 40-33. Both teams were scoreless for almost three minutes, before Montalvo's jumper at 16:52 broke the streak and kept the Pioneers close in the five-point game.
Back-to-back Bentley buckets – a jumper and a three-pointer – put the Falcons up 45-35 and prompted a Pioneer timeout at 15:15. Another Bentley's three gave the hosts a 48-35 advantage with 14:28 to play, and Bentley rounded out the 10-0 run with a Jacques jumper at 14:02 that saw the Pioneers facing a 15-point deficit.
The Pioneers went cold from the floor at a very inopportune time, as they finally broke an over four-minute scoring drought with a jumper by Montalvo at 12:25. The squads both hit three-pointers on their respective possessions, and at the 11:30 media timeout, the score was 53-39 in favor of Bentley.
A quick 5-0 spurt by CWP made the deficit 11 points with just under 10 minutes to play, but Bentley was deadly from the floor and countered with back-to-back baskets and the Pioneers continued to play catch-up. A Hall jumper at 8:16 finally cut the lead to under 10 points, 58-49, and tough CWP defense forced a turnover, with Billy Butler converting a layup on the other end to make the score 58-51 at 7:52.
Bentley converted two free throws, but CWP kept it close as Montalvo hit a three at 5:25 and the Pioneers were down only six points. However, three free throws and a jumper pushed the lead back to double-digits, 65-54, with a little over four minutes remaining in the half.
CWP refused to go without a fight, as Hall's layup made it a nine-point deficit with 3:45 to play, as Bonneau drained a jumper to make it 65-58. But a Falcon three-pointer pushed the lead right back to ten points with two and a half minutes remaining. Another Bentley jumper gave the hosts a 12-points lead and effectively put the game out of reach for the Pioneers, as they would finish with a 74-60 victory.
Both C.W. Post and Bentley converted 26 of 61 from the field.
Leclerc led the Falcons with a game-high 20 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field, including 3-for-4 from long range. Tracey added 17 points and nine rebounds in the game.
Bonneau led the Pioneers offensively with 16 points while Allen added 12 with seven rebounds and two defensive blocks.