PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y.-The Setters dropped a heartbreaking 51-49 loss to the Chargers of New Haven in the First Round of the Northeast-10 Conference Championship. Paces finishes their season at 13-14 overall while the Chargers advance to 15-12 overall and move on to the NE-10 Quarterfinals.
New Haven jumped out to a lead to start the game and maintained a slim lead for much of the opening 20 minutes of the game. The Setters rallied late in the half and headed into halftime trailing by two points at 25-23.
Pace started off the second half strong as a layup from Jonathan Merceus (Union, NJ/Union) (Union, NJ/Union) tied the game up at 19:46. The teams matches points down the stretch as the Setters led by two points at 49-47 with 3:56 to play on a pair of free throws by Denzel Primus-Devonish (Riverdale, MD/St. John's College) (Riverdale, MD/St. John's College). The Chargers answered a minute later to knot the score at 49 with 2:46 to play in the game.
Both teams aggressively attempted to take the lead when New Haven became successful at 1:02 to go as they took a 51-49 lead. New Haven then stole the ball but missed on a three-point attempt and Pace got one final opportunity with 7.7 seconds on the clock. The Setters got the ball into the front court but had a three-point attempt blocked as time expired as Pace came up short in the contest.
Pace shot 18-for-50 (36%) from the field, while the Chargers shot 21-for-49 (42.9%) in the game. New Haven held the edge in second chance points at 14-5, while the Chargers also held a slim advantage on the glass at 35-32.
Despite the loss, Primus-Devonish tallied 20 points, three rebounds and two assists while Merceus totaled 11 boards and nine points for the Setters. Justin Alston (Bronx, NY/St. Raymond) (Bronx, NY/St. Raymond) finished with seven points and three assists while Delroy Daley (Bronx, NY/St. Raymond) pulled down six rebounds.
Justin Exum and Eric Anderson both had 11 points for the Chargers while Anderson added nine boards. Jeffery Adkins finished with ten points, seven rebounds and two steals.
New Haven advances to the NE-10 Quarterfinals to visit Adelphi on Sunday at 1:00 pm.
