Waltham, Mass. (January 10) -- On Saturday afternoon at the Dana Center, the Saint Anselm men's basketball team dropped an 84-57 final to Bentley University in Northeast-10 Conference play.

Bentley ran out to an early 8-0 lead before the Hawks got on the board on an off-balance runner by junior Greg Vetrano (Andover, Mass.). After another Bentley basket, the Hawks got back-to-back threes from Pat Luptowski (Keene, N.H.) and Vetrano to get right back in the game early at 10-8. With the score 15-11 in favor of Bentley, the Falcons embarked on an 8-0 run, highlighted by a three-pointer from Tom Dowling (Rockville Centre, N.Y.), and forced Saint Anselm to call a timeout.

After Bentley pushed the lead in the following minutes, the Hawks made it a 31-19 game with 4:08 left in the first period. The Falcons closed the half on a 13-2 scoring run though for the 44-21 halftime lead. The Hawks were led by six points from Hakeem Williams (Spring Valley, N.Y.) as the team shot 25.9 percent from the field. Bentley had a 12-point half from Jason Westrol (Brielle, N.J.) and shot 51.5 percent as a team, including six three-pointers.

For the game, the Falcons knocked down 10 three-pointers and held the high-scoring Hawks to 57 points in the Bentley victory.

Williams led the Hawks with 19 points, followed by Vetrano with 13. Five Falcons finished the game in double figures.

With the loss, Saint Anselm falls to 10-3 overall and 6-3 in Northeast-10 play, while Bentley is now 12-4 overall and 6-3 in the league. Six teams are now within two games of each other in the upper half of the Northeast-10 standings.

Saint Anselm is back in action on Wednesday, January 14th as the Hawks host Merrimack for a 7:30 p.m. start at Stoutenburgh Gym. For that men's and women's doubleheader, the first 500 fans will receive a free White Out Night t-shirt as part of the team's annual White Out Night promotion.