PLEASANTVILLE, NY- Junior Shelton Mickell tallied 14 points and seven rebounds as the Pace men's basketball team fell in their home opener to Northeast-10 Conference rival Saint Rose 61-43.
 
The Setters fall to 1-3 and 0-1 in the NE-10, while the Golden Knights improve to 3-0 and 1-0 in conference play.
 
The Golden Knights netted the first six points of the contest in the opening two minutes of play. Pace answered with six of the next seven points in the game as Mickell netted four and Kyle Pearson added dunk to pull the Setters back to within a point at 7-6.
 
Saint Rose pushed back ahead by five points but an Evan Gordinier trifecta closed the gap back down to two points at 11-9 just past the midway point of the first half. The Setters shot went cold and only managed three more points the rest of the way as Gordinier netted a triple with a minute to play to slice into the Golden Knights halftime lead.
 
The Golden Knights extended their halftime lead to as much as 25 points early in the second half but the Setters chipped away, closing to 13 points with just over five minutes left in the game. Saint Rose went 7-for-8 at the line in the final 90 seconds to take the win.
 
For the Setters, Gordinier led all scorers with 15 points as he connected on five triples on the night. Mickell added 14 points and seven rebounds, while going 4-for-6 at the free throw line. Jaylen Mann totaled 11 points and five rebounds, while Bryan Rivers dished out a team-best five assists.

The Setters host the University of New Haven Chargers on Saturday, November 22 at 3:30 pm in an NE-10 game.