MANCHESTER, N.H..- The Setters rallied in the second half but fell short of a comeback as the Penmen of Southern New Hampshire slipped past Pace 72-69 in Northeast-10 Conference action. Pace falls to 8-8 overall and 6-6 in the NE-10, while the Penmen improve to 10-7 and 6-6 in conference play.
The Penmen build an early 15-6 lead midway through the opening half but the Setters answered with a 14-6 run to close to within one point at 21-20 just over seven minutes to play. Southern New Hampshire used an 11-1 run to take a 32-21 lead with 3:40 left to play and took a 39-28 lead into the break.
The Setters came out strong to start the second half as they used an 18-4 run to take the lead over the Penmen. Denzel Primus-Devonish (Riverdale, MD/St. John's College) (Riverdale, MD/St. John's College) converted a three-point to play to put the Setters ahead 44-43 with 15:42 left in the game, while Justin Alston's (Bronx, NY/St. Raymond) (Bronx, NY/St. Raymond) lay-up gave Pace a three-point advantage. Pace added to their lead to pull ahead by eight points at 56-48 midway through the half.
The Penmen rallied to take a brief one-point lead at 61-60 but an Alston triple put the Setters back ahead and started a 9-2 run. Keon Williams (Hackensack, N J/Hackensack/Iona College) converted a three-point play with 4:24 to play to give the Setters a 67-63 lead. Primus-Devonish added to the lead with a pair of free throws as Pace led 69-63 with 4:06 to play in the game. The Penmen chipped away and took the lead with under a minute to play as the Setters came up short.
For Pace, Primus-Devonish led the Setters with 20 points and three assists, while Williams finished with 13 points and three rebounds.
The Setters are back in action on Saturday, January 21 when Pace will host the Ravens of Franklin Pierce University at the Goldstein Fitness Center in a Northeast-10 Conference match-up at 3:30 pm. Saturday's game will be "Blue-Out" as Free Love Blue, Live Gold T-shirts will be given out while supplies last. In addition, 250 Free box lunches will be given out by Shop-Rite during both the men's and women's games courtesy of Shop-Rite.
