ALBANY, N.Y. – The Pace University men's basketball team shared the court with the College of Saint Rose Golden Knights for what would be the final time on Saturday, and Saint Rose came from behind to earn a 74-71 win.
Pace falls to 12-7 overall and 8-5 in conference play.
The two teams stuck with each other for the first ten minutes of the first half, but in the back end of the opening 20 minutes, the Setters erupted for an 11-0 run. Highlighted by a pair of triples off the bench by
Matthew Constant, Pace forced the home team into taking a full timeout as they had built a ten-point lead, 34-24.
At the half, Pace owned an eight-point lead, 42-34, including a massive 24-4 run. All but one Setter who checked into the first half found the bottom of the net, with
Tray Alexander leading the win with ten points and five assists while
Jaden Kealey collected eight points of his own.
The second half began and appeared to follow the same script as the first half. While Pace did have the lead, the Golden Knights did manage to always respond to each Pace basket with a basket of their own but the lead was never brought back to single-digits for a significant amount of time.
However, this time it would be Saint Rose making its move in the final ten minutes, capitalizing on fouls and turnovers by Pace, they got the lead down to four with under nine minutes left, 61-57. The lead was brought back up to six on the next trip down for the Setters as Alexander blew by his defender and finished at the rim.
Saint Rose was not finished, getting the game down to one possession with under two minutes left. A pair of Ata Turget free throws made it a one-point game, 69-68. After a defensive stop, the Setters fouled the Golden Knight's Trey Boyd from beyond the arc, who connected on all three free throws to swing the lead in favor of Saint Rose, 71-69.
With under 30 seconds left, a loose ball foul sent Kealey to the charity stripe for a one-and-one attempt. Kealey connected on both to tie the game up at 71. Saint Rose scored on a quick strike in the paint instead of holding for the final shot, giving Pace the ball back with around 20 seconds remaining, a timeout was called after the ball went out-of-bounds with 9.9 seconds left. After taking the inbound, Alexander found Powell who went up for a dunk, but Turget met him at the rim and sent Powell to the line for a pair of free throws. Powell missed both and a foul was called on the rebound attempt.
Turget had himself an immaculate offensive performance for Saint Rose, posting a game-high 28 points.
Powell finished with 18 points while Alexander added 16 points of his own.
Pace returns to action on Tuesday with a trip to Long Island to face off with Adelphi University.
