COLCHESTER, VT – The Pace University men's basketball team suffered a heartbreaking loss at Saint Michael's College, 66-65, on Saturday.
Pace suffered it's first loss of the season, falling to 7-1 and 3-1 in conference play.
Pace controlled the tempo, and by extension the game, for the entirety of the first half. After taking a 6-5 lead off a
Bryan Powell jumper, that basket jumpstarted a 15-2 run for Pace to create some breathing room early, 19-7.
Marc Dadika provided six of the points while
Sean Bresnan added five of his own. The momentum was enough for Pace to have more than enough distance to maintain a steady lead the whole half and took a 38-24 lead into halftime.
Dadika provided a strong 10 points and eight rebounds off the bench in the first half. Powell poured in 12 of his own to lead the offense through the opening 20 minutes. Pace shot 58.1 percent from the field while suffocating the Purple Knights offense and forcing them into a meager shooting clip of 25.9 percent. Pace got 19 points off the bench compared to just four for Saint Michael's.
Saint Michael's did make a run to get back into the game in the second half. After
Tray Alexander and
Jamaal Waters netted the first two baskets of the second half, the Purple Knights erupted for a 16-3 to get the lead down to as little as five, 45-40. The team's than traded a pair of threes before
Kasai Brown got the lead back up to double digits, 54-42.
The home team continued to threaten and cut into the lead with little runs, getting it back down to five once again till Brown hit a triple in front of the Pace bench to get the lead up to eight once again, 59-51, which was followed by a Pace timeout with 5:41 left in the game.
With just over 2:30 left, the lead got down to just two points off a Darrel Yepdo triple. The lead got down to just one shortly after. With less than 10 seconds left, Brown had his inbounds pass intercepted and hit the following pair of free throws to take a 66-65 win.
Four Setters finished in double figures, with Bresnan finishing with 13 and Powell and Dadika each with 12 and Brown with 10.
For the second game in a row, every Setter who checked into the game recorded at least one made field goal.
