NEW HAVEN, CT – Senior Kai Smith (Upper Marlboro, MD/St. Mary's Ryken) (Upper Marlboro, MD/St. Mary's Ryken) netted a career-high 30 points including going 6-for-6 from three-point range as the Pace University men's basketball team fell to #9 Southern Connecticut 94-69 in a Northeast-10 Conference matchup.

Senior Jonathan Merceus (Union, NJ/Union) (Union, NJ/Union) had 17 points and sophomore Jaylen Mann (Youngstown, OH/Liberty) (Youngstown, OH/Liberty) had 10. Senior Jamaal James (Brooklyn, NY/Brooklyn College Academy) scored eight points and grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds.

The two teams played evenly through the first four minutes before the Owls (22-2, 16-2 NE-10) jumped out to a 16-7 lead at the 11:44 mark of the first half. Pace (6-18, 4-14 NE-10) would cut the gap to 19-13 on a layup by Mann with 10:48 remaining before SCSU would score the next 12 points before taking a 47-28 lead into the locker room.

Smith's career performance proved to be the highlight of the second half for the Setters as the senior tallied 22 of his points in the stanza. He hit four triples in the frame while going 9-for-13 from the field overall.

The Setters are in action next on Saturday, February 22 when they travel to Garden City, NY to square off against Adelphi in a Northeast-10 match at 3:30 pm.