PACE FALLS TO MERRIMACK,
85-71, ON SENIOR NIGHT
PLEASANTVILLE, NY- The Pace University men's basketball team lost a tough Northeast-10 Conference matchup to the Warriors of Merrimack College, 85-71, on Saturday night at the Goldstein Fitness Center.
The loss drops Pace to 9-15 overall, and 7-12 in the Northeast-10. The win improves Merrimack to 17-7 on the season, and 13-6 in conference play. With the loss, Pace will finish the regular season with an even record of 7-7 in home games this year.
Pace started the game ice-cold from the field as the Setters missed six of their first seven shots to open the game. Merrimack used this to their advantage as the Warriors jumped out to a quick 11-3 lead with 16:33 left in the first half. Pace used their defense to get back into the game as they started to frustrate the Warriors into committing several offensive fouls in the middle of the first half. The result of this was an 18-10 run over the next nine minutes to make the score 21-21 with 7:03 left in the half. Pace continued to hang around towards the end of the first half as they only trailed by four after a Laurence McGhee (Linden, NJ/Linden) three-point play to make the score 28-25. Merrimack would kill the Setters momentum closing the half on a 6-2 run to make the score 34-27 at the half. Both teams struggled to find any rhythm to their games in the half due in large part to the combined 26 fouls called in the first half which put a lot of players in foul trouble. Pace shot 34 percent from the field in the first half, while Merrimack shot only 32 percent. Pace out-rebounded the Warriors 23-21 in the half.
The Setters game out hard to start the second half as they cut the Merrimack lead down to four after a Carlos Howard (Fort Washington, MD/Gonzaga) layup with 16:44 left in the game. After this run the Setters went cold again from the field as they could only manage two field goals in the next four minutes as Merrimack built its lead back up to 13, at 54-41. Pace wasn't done yet though as they cut the lead down to nine, after a driving Ryan Woods (Staten Island, NY/Saint Peters) layup, to make the score 45-54 with 11:12 left in the game. This is the point in the game where the wheels fell off for Pace, Merrimack put their foot down on the gas pedal. The Warriors put up an impressive 10-2 run over the next four minutes to take their biggest lead of the game at 17, with 7:42 left in the game. Pace would get no closer than 12 the rest of the way as they couldn't keep up with Merrimack's up-tempo offense losing by 14. Pace finished the game shooting 39 percent from the field, while Merrimack shot 44 percent. The key stat in the game was free-throw shooting as Pace struggled mightily from the charity stripe. Pace finished the game shooting 15-of-33 (45%) from the line, while Merrimack shot a very efficient 26-of-30 (87%) from the free-throw line.
Pace was led by Woods who finished the game with a team-high 18 points on 6-of-13 shooting, while dishing out three assists. Adrian Mills (Woodbridge, VA/Paul VI) had a solid night as well for the Setters with 15 points, six rebounds and two assists. Senior Randy Wilson (Peekskill, NY/Peekskill) chipped in with six points, and eight rebounds on his senior night.
Pace will hit the road for their last three games of the season starting with Stonehill College on Wednesday, February 18. The game is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m.
