WALTHAM, Mass. – With the regular season down to its final five games, Division II's second longest active winning streak will be on the line when the Bentley University women's basketball team hosts Franklin Pierce University. The 5:30 pm game will be streamed via NE10 NOW on FloCollege.
 
Wednesday will be the Falcons' annual Breast Cancer Awareness Game, and fans are encouraged to wear pink.
 
Bentley, with sights on repeating as Northeast-10 regular season champions, lead the conference by three games and has records of 22-1 overall and 14-1 NE10. The 18-game win streak is exceeded nationally only by unbeaten Cal State Dominguez Hills.
 
Franklin Pierce, 7-6 in its last 13 games, is 8-14 overall, 5-11 conference and 3-8 on the road. The Ravens, who won 20 games a year ago, are currently tenth in the 11-team NE10.
 
The Falcon defense has been special this season. Four straight opponents have been kept to 45 or less, Bentley has yielded less than 50 11 times and the opponents' field goal percentage is just .352. Coach C White's squad is fourth nationally in points allowed (50.0), sixth in scoring margin (19.7) and ninth in fewest fouls committed (13.2).
 
In Saturday's 19-point Senior Day win over Assumption, the Falcons yielded only 39 points and kept the Greyhounds to a .286 field goal percentage, including just 1 of 12 from beyond the three-point line.
 
Four Falcons are averaging double figures in the scoring column with graduate forward Maggie Whitmore (South Portland, Maine/South Portland HS) heading the list at 12.6. She's shot just over 50 percent over her last five games, and with 1,320 career points, needs 14 to move past Lauren Green '18 and Lauren Fuller '90 into 17^th on the program's all-time list.
 
Senior forward Kylie DuCharme (Wilmington/Wilmington HS) leads the Falcons in rebounding (7.9), steals (38) and blocks (17) while scoring 11 a game. Sophomore guard Niya Morgen (Swampscott/St. Mary's HS), the Division II leader in three-point accuracy (.515), nets 10.6 points a game off the bench, and senior guard Amanda Kabantu (Portland, Maine/Portland HS) is up to 10.3 after scoring 15 against Assumption.
 
Morgen and Kabantu are among the most accurate shooting guards in the NE10, at .535 and .503 respectively.
 
Bentley has four of the top 13 conference players in terms of three-pointers made. Morgan has 50, graduate guard Brooke Obar (North Yarmouth, Maine/Greely HS) 33,  junior guard Cassidy Yeomans (Marion/Tabor Academy) 32, and Whitmore 31.
 
As a result of that depth, Bentley is first in the NE10 in three-pointers made as a team, 8.1 a game, as well as accuracy from deep (.379).
 
Franklin Pierce features six-foot-four grad student Collette Mulderig. She averages 15 points with a .525 field goal percentage and is second in the conference in rebounding at 8.9 a game. Mulderig has posted back-to-back double-doubles, including 28 points and 13 rebounds in a win over Southern New Hampshire.
 
The Ravens' number two scorer (8.7) and leader in assists (50) and steals (42) is graduate guard Janessa Gonzalez, who played for Bentley from 2021-23.
 
Franklin Pierce is tenth in the NE10 in scoring (53.1) and eighth in defense (59.6).
 
In the earlier meeting this season, Whitmore scored 20 and DuCharme added 13 as Bentley went wire-to-wire for a 64-44 win.
 
Bentley is 46-11 all-time against Franklin Pierce, including 15-2 since 2016.
 
The Falcons will play three in a row on the road, beginning Saturday at Saint Anselm, before finishing the regular season at home Feb. 25 against Southern New Hampshire.