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PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y. Both the Pace mens and womens basketball teams lost to Le Moyne in the final game of the regular season.
The women, who had already locked up the No. 3 seed in the Northeast-10 Conference, lost 64-51. The Setters finished the season 19-7 overall and 16-6 in conference play.
The Dolphins raced out to a 25-10 lead in the first half, but Pace responded with a 14-0 run to pull within one at 25-24 with 1:44 remaining. Le Moyne scored four straight to take a 29-24 halftime lead.
Le Moyne pulled away again in the second half with a 37-26 lead, but Pace rallied again to cut the lead to four at 38-34 with 12 minutes left. The Dolphins surged ahead to 56-45 with 2:43 remaining. Pace cut the lead to 58-50 with about a minute to play, but Le Moyne hit 6-of-8 free throws in the final minute to put the game away.
Allison Cleary led Pace with 13 points while Maral Javadifar had 12 points and seven rebounds. Kerri White had nine points and two steals.
The women will host the No. 6 seed in the conference on Sunday at 1 p.m.
The mens team also dropped their game, 69-59, and finish the season at 13-13 overall and 11-11 in conference play.
Pace held a 13-12 lead nine minutes into the first half but Le Moyne went on a 13-4 run to take a 28-17 with two minutes to play. The Dolphins led, 31-20, at halftime.
They built that lead to 42-28 with 14:42 left in the second half, but Pace rallied to cut the lead to 44-40. Le Moyne pulled away again with a 52-41 lead with eight minutes remaining and Pace again rallied to pull within five, 52-47, with 6:22 to go.
The Dolphins went ahead by 10 with three minutes remaining. Pace managed to get within six with just less than a minute to go, but Le Moyne went 7-for-8 from the line in the final minute and a half to put the game out of reach.
Jonathan Merceus led Pace with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Kevin Clark also scored 18 for the Setters. Justin Alston added nine points and eight rebounds.
Pace now awaits the results of Tuesdays Northeast-10 Conference games, which will determine its seeding for the playoffs.
From a report by Pace University Athletics/John M. Tagliaferri
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