COLCHESTER, VT – Freshman Shanice Allen (Riverhead, NY/Riverhead) (Riverhead, NY/Riverhead) scored a career-high 23 points and the Setters recorded their best shooting night of the season as the Pace University women's basketball team to a 71-66 win at Saint Michael's in a Northeast-10 contest on Saturday afternoon.
In addition to Allen's work, Pace (4-14, 3-9 NE-10) got 17 points and seven rebounds from junior Shanice Maynard (Camden, NJ/Woodrow Wilson / Coppin State) (Camden, NJ/Woodrow Wilson). Junior Margo Hackett (Pawling, NY/Pawling) (Pawling, NY/Pawling) scored all eight of her points in the second half while freshman Kirsten Dodge (Fabius, NY/Fabius-Pompey) (Fabius, NY/Fabius-Pompey) chipped in with seven points and seven rebounds.
In a back-and-forth first half, the Setters took a one-point lead into the locker room as freshman Loren Kaiser (Stewartsville, NJ/Phillipsburg) hit on a driving layup with six seconds remaining in the frame. Pace shot the ball well, hitting 51.7% the floor.
In the second half, the two teams continued to play close. With the Purple Knights (3-13, 2-10 NE-10) up 46-44, Maynard hit a jumper in the lane to knot the score at 46-46 with 12:28 remaining. That ignited an 11-0 run that saw Pace take a lead they would never relinquish. Allen knocked down a three-pointer, one of four on the day for the freshman, to make it 49-46. After a defensive stop, Allen struck again, this time hitting a teardrop in the lane to make it 51-46 Setters with 11:00 to go. Maynard followed with a jumper from outside the paint at the 9:44 mark and Dodge capped the run, knocking down a jump hook to give Pace a 55-46 lead with 8:15 remaining.
Saint Michael's did not go down easily, however, eventually slicing the led to 62-60 on a jumper by Alexa Long with 4:16 remaining. The Setters responded as Allen hit on her fourth triple of the night followed by a Maynard layup to extend the lead to 67-60 with 2:50 remaining.
For the game, Pace hit on 51.8% of their shots from the field and were 6-for-13 from beyond the arc.
Pace is in action next on Tuesday when they travel to Assumption for an NE-10 matchup. Tipoff is scheduled for 5:30 pm.
