LOWELL, Mass.- Five Setters scored in double digits as Pace Women's basketball took the win on the road against the Riverhawks of the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UMass-Lowell), 88-79. The Setters advance to 12-3 overall and 9-2 in the NE-10 while the Riverhawks drop to 5-10 overall and 4-7 in conference play.
UMass-Lowell came out strong and took their largest lead of ten 4:54 minutes into the game. Pace slowly chipped away at the point margin throughout the next seven minutes and took the first lead of the game on a layup from Brittany Shields (Cold Spring, NY/Haldane). The two teams would trade off the lead in the seven minutes leading into the half where the Setters ended up on top 42-39 going into break.
Pace had 20 points to UMass-Lowell's six in the paint and Pace had five more points than UMass-Lowell off of turnovers. The Riverhawks shot 77.8% from three point range to Pace's 50% in the first half.
Every basket was fought tooth and nail in the first nine minutes of the second half with both teams alternating leads. The Setters were able to go up by seven with 10:32 to go on a Kerri White (Flushing, NY/Archbishop Molloy) (Flushing, NY/Archbishop Molloy) three-point play and a layup from Victoria Jones (Staten Island, NY/St. Peter's) (Staten Island, NY/St. Peter's). The Setters held a slight lead for three minutes before the Riverhawks answered and took back the lead with four minutes to go in the game. The last tie of the game came at 2:18 before a three-pointer and free-throw by White and a layup from Carol Johnson (New City, NY/Cardinal Spellman) (New City, NY/Cardinal Spellman) gave the Setters a 81-75 lead. The Setters would go to the line four times, making 7-8 free throws and finishing out the game 88-79.
Pace scored 30 points to UMass-Lowell's 28 in the paint and scored 15 points off of turnovers to their seven. Though the Riverhawks had nine second-chance points and Pace had eight, Pace's bench scored 18 points to the UMass-Lowell's six points.
Despite the loss, Danielle DePierro put up 24 points, four rebounds and four assists. Brianna Wilson recorded a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Brianna Calver finished with 12 points and two assists while Bianca Simmons finished with tens points and two rebounds. Sha'nay Bushner finished with nine points and nine rebounds.
Shields led the Setters with 18 points and seven rebounds while Allison Cleary (New Windsor, NY/Cornwall Central) (New Windsor, NY/Cornwall Central) and White followed with 17 points apiece. Cleary also added six rebounds, three assists and one steal as White added four rebounds, one assist and one block. Johnson tallied 13 points, eight assist and three rebounds. Margo Hackett (Pawling, NY/Pawling) finished with ten points and twos rebounds while Jones had a season-high of eight points, two rebounds and two assists.
The Setters hit the road again to play at Southern New Hampshire University Tuesday January 17 at 5:30 pm.
