Box Score
ALBANY-The College of Saint Rose and Bentley exchanged leads 11 times and drew even on 16 occasions, but the Falcons pulled away throughout the final 11 minutes to upend the Golden Knights 93-79 in a
Northeast-10 Conference Championship first-round encounter this evening at the Daniel P. Nolan Gymnasium.
Bentley (18-10) will now visit Saint Anselm (19-6) Sunday for a 3:00 pm quarterfinal contest in Manchester, NH. The Hawks are the top seed out of the NE-10 Northeast Division, while Bentley is the fifth seed.
The Falcons were efficient all evening. They knocked down 16, 3-pointers at a 42.4 percent (14-for-33) clip, converted 17 of their 18 free throw opportunities and turned the ball over only four times to bring closure to the Golden Knights (13-14) 2013-14 campaign.
Senior center
Dominykas Milka recorded his 20th "double-double" of the year and the 42nd of his career to lead Saint Rose. Milka scored 17 of his game-high 28 points in the second half and also hauled in 17 rebounds. Senior guard
Kareem Thomas tossed in a career-high 22 points behind a 3-for-4 effort from the arc while sophomore forward
Tyler Sayre had 15 points.
The two squads traded jabs during the opening 30 minutes until Bentley created some breathing room by taking off on a 16-8 jaunt at the 11:06 mark that transformed a two point, 65-63, lead into a 10 point, 81-71, cushion with 7:15 left to play. Senior guard Jasper Grassa ignited the run with a 3-pointer and junior forward Andrew Shaw fittingly capped it with another trey.
The Falcons subsequently increased their advantage to 14 points on three occasions from that point forward.
Junior guard Keegan Hyland and Shaw both recorded career-highs to pace five Bentley double-figure scorers. Hyland tossed in 25 points while Shaw finished with 24 thanks to 5-for-8 shooting from long range. Grassa had 17 while sophomore forwards Tyler McFarland and Shaq Phelps added 12 apiece.
For Saint Rose, Milka and Thomas wound up their careers tonight along with fellow seniors
Dan Mundweiler,
James Wilson,
Eric Sinko, and
Jin Hong. Milka closed out his tenure as the eighth all-time leading scorer (1,550) and fifth all-time leader rebounder (961) in program annals.
Please visit www.gogoldenknights.com for the latest news and results on Saint Rose athletics. Sign up for our SMS text message service to have results sent directly to your cell phone by clicking here. Sign up for our E-Newsletter for the latest news by clicking here and for information on the Golden Knights Club, click here.
