The snow gave Pace an extra day to prepare for the Chargers of New Haven. Unfortunately, the extra day advantage was not enough for the Setters.
Although the game was scheduled for Saturday, the two teams did not get to playing until late Sunday night. When the game finally ensued, Pace fell at home to the Chargers 62-52.
At no point in the first half did New Haven have a lead larger than eleven. Yet it was an early 10-0 run for the Chargers that forced the Setters out of the low block and caused Pace to shoot more jumpers.
The story of the night for the visiting chargers was the offensive output they got from their core three players. New Haven’s Jeremy Williams lead all scorers on the night with 20 points on eight of 15 shooting form the field. Jeffery Adkins and Justin Exum both had 12 points apiece in the game and the starting five of New Haven outscored Pace’s starting five 55-40 on the night.
The Setters were able to get a great offensive evening from senior business management major Keon Williams. Williams lead all Setters scorers with 19 points and also lead all rebounders by cleaning up the glass eleven times on the night. Junior forward Jonathan Merceus also put up 12 points on the night to help the Setters score.
One area of the game in which the Setters had a good amount of control was points off of the bench. Freshman forward Jaylen Mann had seven points off of the bench as the Setters’ second unit outscored New Haven’s 12-7.
Yet at the end of the evening most of the numbers broke the way of the visiting team. New Haven as a team shot 40 percent on the night compared to just 38 percent from Pace. The Chargers pulled down 39 rebounds as a team compared to 33 boards for Pace on the night. Also New Haven blocked seven shots on the night compared to just three for Pace.
Still the most telling statistic for the home team was the number of free throws New Haven had on the night. The Chargers shot a total of 73 percent from the charity stripe compared to 67 percent for the Setters.
While the percentages in and of themselves do not appear to be too far apart, New Haven got to the line a total of 15 times on the evening while Pace only visited the free throw line three times.
The Setters normally shot well from the free throw line and have been consistent throughout the regular season. Pace has made 274 free throws this season and only four other teams have converted more times from the charity stripe than the Setters this season.
Yet Pace did not get to the line against New Haven very often and the free throw disparity hurt them.
With the loss the Setters fall to 9-12 on the year with a record of 6-11 in the Northeast-10. Pace will travel to Connecticut to take on the Owls of Southern Connecticut State University on Tuesday evening.