On Friday night, Pace University hosted Southern New Hampshire University for the men’s first round of the Northeast-10 Conference playoffs. Prior to the event, Pace created and posted a video which advertised the community to support in attendance on Instagram (@paceathletics). The game would live up to the hype precedented by this video.

Led not by one, but many, the Setters continued to share possession of the ball with each other to truly ignite the offense. Tyrone Cohen Jr., who has been playing at an even higher level since his remarkable SportsCenter highlight, would record a game-high 27 points.

The second half would be run by Cohen, who scored 23 of his 27 after the break. The senior guard would sink nine of his 14 field goal attempts, including four from deep on the night. Not only did Cohen chip away at SNHU’s defense, he strengthened Pace’s with three steals and a block. However, this would not be the only impressive feat of the night.

Peyton Wejnert would contribute 17 points including a three-pointer and 8 boards to help the Setters. Impressive numbers like this are what the senior forward has brought the table the entire season and why he is the NE-10’s leading scorer. Along with this, Bryan Powell would score a career-high 24 points, making seven of his 10 field goal attempts, including 3 shots from behind the arc made out of 3 attempts. Not only did Powell do his job getting to the basket, he recorded 13 rebounds which would result in his fifth double-double as a freshman.

The two have quite a similar playing style in the paint which prevents Pace from exposing vulnerability on offense. When one is on the bench, the other is on the court adding to the intensity of Pace’s offense. As long as this freshman-senior duo can continue putting up numbers like this, the Setters can expect to compete with other top-tier teams in the NE-10 playoffs.

Of course, this is not all that drives the Pace offense. These double-digit scorers may not perform as well without the university’s assist leader, Brandon Jacobs. Jacobs would earn 7 assists to encourage these kinds of performances from his teammates. Along with finding the open man, the junior guard added 12 points of his own.

This offensive feat would help the Setters defeat SNHU 90-75 in the first round of the NE-10 playoffs. This is the second year in a row that the Setters will continue in the quarterfinals. The men took on Saint Anselm, who is the top seed in the playoffs, on Sunday. The Setters put up a good fight, but lost 77-82.