SLOW START DOOMS PACE AS THE SETTERS FALL TO FRANKLIN PIERCE 83-69

RINDGE, N.H.- The Pace University women's basketball team couldn't overcome a sluggish first half as they went on to lose to the Ravens of Franklin Pierce 83-69. With the loss Pace falls to 8-4 overall and 5-3 in the Northeast-10, while the Ravens of Franklin Pierce will improve to 9-4 and 6-3 in conference play. With the win Franklin Pierce will take over second place in the NE-10 which was previously owned by the Setters. The loss will drop the Setters to 1-4 on the road this season.

Pace stayed close early on in the first half thanks to a very balanced scoring attack by the Setters that saw six different players score. Brittany Shields (Cold Spring, NY/Haldane) was the last of those six Setters to score to cut the Franklin Pierce lead down to five at 21-16 with 10:22 left in the half. Franklin Pierce then caught fire for the next six minutes as they started finding holes in the Setter zone. The Ravens used their hot shooting to go on an 18-7 run to eventually make the score 39-23 with 4:41 left in the first half. The Ravens had most of this run fueled by Johannah Leedham who had a great first half as she scored 19 points in the first half. The Ravens went on to take a 48-28 lead going into the half. Pace struggled shooting in the first half as they shot 34 percent from the field, while the Ravens shot 51 percent.

The second half started with the Ravens continuing to maintain a double digit lead as the lead got as big as 23 for Franklin Pierce. Pace was trailing 58-40 with 14:09 left in the game when they started to make their run. Pace went on to make a 19-11 run that started with back-to-back three pointers by Courtney Keegan (North Arlington, NJ/Queen of Peace) (North Arlington, NJ/Queen of Peace) to draw them to within eight at 67-59 with 6:30 left in the game. This would be the closest Pace would get as Franklin Pierce would regain the momentum with Johannah Leedham taking over again for the Ravens as she finished with 37 points. Pace would stay close thanks to the play of Brittany Shields, who had 14 second half points, but the Ravens hot shooting was too much to overcome as they would go on to lose by 14.

Pace was led by Taylor Losey (Bristol, CT/Bristol Eastern) (Bristol, CT/Bristol Eastern) who scored 15 points on 3-of-6 shooting from three, with 4 rebounds, and four assists. Courtney Keegan (North Arlington, NJ/Queen of Peace) had a very good shooting game for Pace as she finished with 16 points on 4-of-7 shooting from three-point land, and three steals. Pace finished the game shooting 46 percent, while Franklin Pierce shot 48 percent from the field. Pace was also out-rebounded by five at 36-11.

Pace will be back in action on Saturday, January 10 as they will return home to take on conference foe UMass Lowell. Tip-off is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.