SPRINGFIELD, Mass.

It was a rotten ending to an otherwise excellent season for North Alabama's men's basketball team Wednesday night in the MassMutual Center, which is just a stone's throw from the Basketball Hall of Fame.

With the crowd clearly in full support of Bentley - the closest thing to a home team at this year's Elite Eight - North Alabama finally ran out of postseason comebacks.

In proving that its 34 wins and No. 1 national ranking is not a fluke, Bentley had its way with the Lions on this night in a 102-92 victory.

Even though disappointed with the outcome, there will be plenty for the Lions to look back upon in the days ahead.

They won the GSC East Division title, finished with 27 wins and captured the school's first regional championship since 1996.

More importantly, perhaps in the long term, is that they left fans wanting more - one or two more games this season, another regional title next year and a return trip to Springfield next year.

On the first trip to the Elite Eight in the Bobby Champagne Era, the Lions got a taste of what it takes to win on the national stage.

Against Bentley, as solid a team in its first eight players as there is in this tournament, UNA needed to be more resilient - to find ways to stop Bentley's scoring surges and to find a way to sustain its own momentum.

For a stretch of 18 crucial minutes, the Lions didn't have a defensive answer for Bentley's motion offense and couldn't put together a scoring run to slow the Falcons' momentum.

In that critical stretch, UNA went from trailing by two points to trailing by 19 points as Bentley seemingly hit every shot it took.

In the final eight minutes, the Lions found some of the explosive offense that Bentley coach Jay Lawson feared. By then, however, it was too late. Unlike last week at the South Regional tournament in Lakeland, Fla., where the Lions rallied three nights in a row to earn their trip to Springfield, there would be miracle comebacks. The hole simply was too deep from which to recover.

"We were half a step slow tonight," Champagne said. "We were concerned about their 3-point shooting, and they broke us down off the dribble."

Bentley's offensive scheme isn't something that UNA hadn't seen. Champagne said West Georgia runs a similar motion offense.

"The difference is that you can play West Georgia differently," he said. "They have a couple of guys that strictly drive, so you can play them a certain way. Bentley has got five, six or seven guys who can dribble, pass and shoot."

That diversity was the difference Wednesday.

Bentley used a first-round loss in the first round of last year's Elite Eight as fodder for a return trip this year.

The Lions are in a similar situation.

It will be interesting to see how next year plays out.

Gregg Dewalt can be reached at 740-5748 or gregg.dewalt@timesdaily.com.