Pleasantville, N.Y.- The ride from Colchester, VT to Pleasantville, NY was that of a pleasant one as senior Justin Alston (Bronx, NY/St. Raymond) (Bronx, NY/St. Raymond) led the Setters to their sixth win of the season over conference match-up the Purple Knights of St. Michael's. Pace advances to 6-5 overall and 4-3 in the NE-10, while St. Michael's drops to 4-6 overall and 3-4 in conference play.
Alston had 21 points for the Setters and added three rebounds, two steals and one assist.
"It was a good win on the road," Alston said.
Kevin Clark (Dunmore, PA/Dunmore/St. Johns University) (Dunmore, PA/Dunmore/St. Johns University) started the game off with a three-point goal in the first minute but the Purple Knights went on a run that put them up 21-22 halfway through the first half. Ahmad George (Bowie, MD/Archbishop Carroll) (Bowie, MD/Archbishop Carroll), Kai Smith (Upper Marlboro, MD/St. Mary's Ryken) (Upper Marlboro, MD/St. Mary's Ryken) and Alston were instrumental in lessening the point margin where they went on a run that brought the Setters within two points. Pace was unable to take the lead and went into half down eight, 25-33.
Alston started the second half with a three-point field goal but Pace and St. Michael's would go shot for shot in the first few minutes. The Purple Knights went up twelve points on the Setters with 14:46 to go in the second. Jon Merceus (Union, NJ/Union) made two foul shots and Clark made two back-to-back three point field goals and two foul shots to bring it within five halfway through the second half. St. Michael's maintained a good lead a majority of the second half until two fouls by the Purple Knights sent Denzel Primus-Devonish (Riverdale, MD/St. John's College) (Riverdale, MD/St. John's College) to the line for a three-point play and Keon Williams (Hackensack, NJ/Hackensack/Iona College) to the line to bring the Setters within two. Alston hit a three-pointer to take the first lead of the game since the beginning minutes of the game with 4:14 minutes to go. The Setters maintained a slight lead from there out and finished with a final score of 67-61.
Both Pace and St. Michael's put up the same team numbers in terms of assists, turnovers and points allowed off turnovers but Pace had 33 points off the bench to St. Michael's 12 and shot 73.7% to St. Michael's 57.1% from the free-throw line.
Mike Holton Jr. led the Purple Knights with 18 points, five rebounds and two steals while Travis Warech had a team-high of nine rebounds and tallied 11 points, three assists and two steals as well. James Cambronne and Tyler Schilling both had nine points and Mike Thompson finished with six points and six rebounds.
Merceus had a team-high of 12 rebounds and added ten points for the Setters while Clark had a season-high of 11 points. Primus-Devonish finished with nine points, four assists and three rebounds while Williams contributed seven rebounds and four points.
The Setters return home to take on conference opponent Bentley University Saturday January 7 at 3:30 pm.
