QUEENS, N.Y.- In a shocker, Pace Men’s Basketball defeated Division 1 St. John’s University Red Storm on the road in a pre-season tune-up. Last Saturday’s win was the first in an exhibition match over a Division 1 opponent.
An aggressive Pace pushed out an early lead in the first half. The first bucket of the new year belonged to Bryan Powell on a jumper. His team quickly got a 10-point lead just before the 13-minute mark. St. John’s chipped slowly away, the lead going from 17-7 to 17-14. The Setters held firm, getting two buckets to put the lead up to 8. Just before the two-minute warning, St. John’s gets the lead down to 1. The Setters would not lose their advantage, as they went into the half up 39-34.
The second half was an even tighter contest. Bryan Powell opened the half with a jumper and three-point shot. Sean Bresnan’s 3 put the lead back to double digits and another from Powell made it 52-37. A Red Storm three was answered with a Powell layup. Both offenses proceeded to stall. A plethora of misses and defensive plays froze the score at 54-40 for 3 minutes. Free throws came for St. John’s at the 12-minute mark dropping the lead to 12. Then it was more rigidness on offense and prowess on defense. There was no change until the 6-minute mark when the home team got two more free throws,Pace still leading by 10. Chaz Harvey hit a 3 to increase to 13.
St. John’s would try to make a run in the final 6 minutes but to no success. They got into a back and forth with the Setters. The lead got down to 6 courtesy of a shot by Naheim Alleyne with 54 seconds left. They could not get the ball fast enough out of Pace’s hands. Harvey hit another jump to put Pace up 63-56 with twenty seconds. Victory was in hand for the Setters, a cheerful ride back to Pleasantville was due. Final score is 63-59.
Forwards Bryan Powell and Jamaal Waters both led with double doubles. Powell had 24 points and 10 rebounds with 12 of those points coming from 4 three-pointers. Waters had 14 points and 10 rebounds 7 of which were offensive rebounds. Point Guard Tray Alexander had 6 points and 4 assists.
The next game is the real thing for Pace. Game 1 of the 2023-24 Men’s Basketball season begins at Queens College in Rockville Centre, N.Y. about an hour away from St. John’s University. That game occurs on November 10 with tipoff at 8 p.m.