MEN'S BASKETBALL RETURNS FROM BRAZIL WITH 2-1 PRESEASON RECORD

Pleasantville, N.Y.-The Pace men's basketball team  traveled  to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil in the middle of August and won two of three games during the trip. 

In the first game, the Setters had five players score in double figures in a 77-52 victory over Club Botafogo. Adrian Mills led the way with 17 points, followed by Kean Williams with 16, Delroy Daley and Jon Merceus with 14 a piece, and Dave Eismeier with 14, including 4 three pointers. Merceus and Daley led Pace in rebounding with 11 and 10 boards, respectively.

Two days later, Pace dominated play inside with 50 points in the paint, and downed Club Fluminense, 77-69. The Setters receive outstanding inside play from Merceus and Daley. Merceus led all scorers with 24 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, and Daley had 12 points and 10 rebounds. Mills controlled the game from the point guard position, tallying 14 points and 6 assists.

The following night, Pace rallied from 12 points down in the closing minutes and had a chance to win at the buzzer when a Mills' pull-up in the lane rimmed out, falling to Club Tijuca, 67-66. Justin Alston spurred the rally with 12 points in the closing six minutes, Daley scored 14 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, and Merceus chipped in 10 points and 10 rebounds. Ahmad George scored 11 points, including 3 three pointers, and Mills added 10 points.

"We played better than expected," said Assistant Coach Brandon Arnette. "It was a good trip overall. The only game we lost was to the team that played USC and USC beat them by 5. We have the whole team coming back but we were missing our starting point guard in Denzel Primus-Devonish. Delroy and Adrian played consistent throughout the whole trip and our younger guys Ahmad and Jon came back in good shape and played well."

"It was a great opportunity to go all out and put our talents to work against great competition," Daley said. "I played the best I have in a while because we didn't have the pressures of the regular season conference games and it allowed us the freedom to go all out and try new things."

The men's basketball team will return to preseason practice October 15 and will launch their season November 11 in the Pace Kickoff Classic in NYC against Nyack at 8 pm. The team will return to Goldstein Fitness Center November 12 to face Dominican College at 8 pm to round off the Pace Tournament.