SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Graduate forward Maggie Whitmore (South Portland, Maine/South Portland HS) and junior guard Cassidy Yeomans (Marion/Tabor Academy) each scored 14 points as Bentley University remained unbeaten on the road and won its 22^nd straight overall with a 70-65 win over American International College in Northeast-10 Conference women's basketball Saturday afternoon at Butova Gymnasium.
 
Bentley, the fourth ranked team in the WBCA Division II coaches poll since late December, improved to 26-1 overall and 18-1 conference. Coach C White's team, 14-0 on the road, previously locked up the NE10 regular season title.
 
Threes were flying early for the Bentley Falcons, who knocked down five long balls in both the first and second quarters. They finished the first half 10 of 18 from distance, a .556 success rate, and went into intermission up 14, 43-29.
 
Bentley led by as many as 22, 38-16 with 6:25 left in the second after sophomore guard Niya Morgen (Swampscott/St. Mary's HS), the Division II leader in three-point accuracy, drained her team's ninth long ball of the first 13-plus minutes.
 
Leading the three-point assault were  the backcourt tandem of graduate student Brooke Obar (North Yarmouth, Maine/Greely HS) and Yeomans, team captains along with Whitmore. Obar was 3-of-3 from deep in the first half and Yeomans was 3-for-4, and each hit the century mark for career threes.
 
The Falcons' top scorer and rebounder during the opening 20 minutes was Whitmore with ten points and six boards.
 
Eight straight Yellow Jacket points, four coming via steals and lay-ups from freshman forward Keyvanna Bennett (Windsor, Conn.), reduced the Falcon advantage to eight, 48-40 with 3:36 left in the third.
 
Bentley closed the third with six straight points to restore the advantage to 14, 58-44. Five of those were scored by Morgen, who finished with 12 points, five rebounds and three assists off the bench.
 
Bennett scored five during a 7-0 spurt that reduced the Bentley lead to five, 64-59 with 3:53 remaining in regulation.
 
After a pair of Whitmore baskets, Bennett answered with four points of her own and it was again a five-point game, this time, 68-64 with 1:45 left.
 
It stayed that way until Morgen hit two from the charity stripe with 26.5 seconds left, making it a three-possession game.
 
Yeomans made four of her five attempts from deep, Whitmore collected six rebounds, and both provided three assists.
 
Bentley also received nine points from senior forward Kylie DuCharme (Wilmington/Wilmington HS) and Obar, and eight from senior guard Amanda Kabantu (Portland, Maine/Portland HS).
 
AIC (12-15, 5-14 NE10) received 19 points apiece from Bennett and senior guard Chelsea Reeves (Brooklyn, N.Y.).
 
Bentley outscored AIC by 36 points from beyond the arc as the Falcons were 13 of 28 and the Yellow Jackets 1 of 12. But in contrast, points in the paint (36-12) and points off turns (24-13) favored the home team.
 
The regular season will end Tuesday with the Falcons at home against Southern New Hampshire.