ALBANY, N.Y.- The Setters held off a late run by the Golden Knights of Saint Rose as Pace took home a heart-stopping 74-71 victory in Northeast-10 Conference action. Pace improves to 4-3 overall and 3-2 in the NE-10, while the Golden Knights fall to 0-7 and 0-5 in conference play.
The Setters took an early 22-14 lead on a pair of free throws by Jonathan Merceus (Union, NJ/Union) (Union, NJ/Union) at the 8:12 mark of the opening half. Saint Rose closed the gap to 22-18 but a triple by Kevin Clark (Dunmore, PA/Dunmore/St. Johns University) (Dunmore, PA/Dunmore/St. John's Univ.) and two free throws by Denzel Primus-Devonish (Riverdale, MD/St. John's College) (Riverdale, MD/St. John's) pushed the Pace lead back to eight at 27-18 with 6:31 left in the half. The Setters maintained their lead the rest of the half as Clark went 3-for-3 at the line as time expired to give Pace a 40-30 lead at the break.
The Golden Knights would rally to start the second half as they would pull to within four at 42-38 with 15:18 remaining in the game. The Setters would score the next seven points as Primus-Devonish hit a pair of shots, while Delroy Daley (Bronx, NY/St. Raymond) (Bronx, NY/St. Raymond) completed a three-point play to extend the Pace advantage to 49-38 with 13:25 left in the game.
Saint Rose would rally once again and pull to within four at 61-57 with 3:43 left in the game. Pace would answer on back-to-back lay-ups by Merceus to extend the Setter lead to 65-57 with just over two minutes to play. The Golden Knights would hang out as Andre Pope converted a three-point play and on the next possession hit a triple to pull Saint Rose to within two points at 68-66 with 51 seconds left in the game. Pace would hold on down the stretch as they would go 6-for-8 at the line over the final 46 seconds. Adrian Mills (Woodbridge, VA/Paul VI) (Woodbridge, VA/Paul VI) went 1-for-2, while Primus-Devonish (4-for-4) and Clark (1-for-2) were key shooters at the line for Pace. Saint Rose had one final shot a half-court runner by Pope came up short at the buzzer sounded to give Pace the victory.
For Pace, Primus-Devonish led the Setters with 21 points, six assists and four rebounds. Kai Smith (Upper Marlboro, MD/St. Mary's Ryken) (Upper Marlboro, MD/St. Mary's Ryken) finished with 12 points, while Clark totaled 13 points. Keon Williams (Hackensack, NJ/Hackensack/Iona College) led Pace with seven rebounds.
The Setters are back in action on Tuesday, December 6 when Pace will host Adelphi University in a Northeast-10 Conference game at 7:30 at the Goldstein Fitness Center.
