COLCHESTER, Vt. - The Saint Michael's College men's basketball team erased an 18-point second-half deficit against 19th-ranked Pace University on Saturday before withstanding a last-second miss for the second straight game to capture a 66-65 Northeast-10 Conference victory in the Ross Sports Center.
 
The Purple Knights took over sole possession of first place in the NE10 after the teams had entered the day tied for the top spot. The Purple and Gold was tied for 10th in this week's D2CSC East Region poll, while the Setters were 19th in the D2CSC national poll, 24th in the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) national poll, and second in the East. Pace was one of two undefeated teams remaining in the region.
 
RECORDS

• Saint Michael's (5-1, 4-0 NE10), Pace (7-1, 3-1 NE10)

SAINT MICHAEL'S LEADERS

• Sophomore Darrel Yepdo (Dracut, Mass./Brooks School), 26 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 9-for-19 field goals, 2-for-5 three-pointers, 6-for-8 free throws
• Junior Jhamyl Fricas (Lawrence, Mass./Worcester Academy/Connors State), 13 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 5-for-9 field goals, 3-for-5 three-pointers
• Sophomore Alan Brzezinski (Örebro, Sweden/Western Reserve Academy), 9 points, 7 rebounds, 3-for-7 field goals
• Sophomore Nolan Marold (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Brewster Academy/Loyola Chicago), 6 points, 6 rebounds
• Junior Jacob Duniver (Fredericksburg, Va./Woodstock Academy), 7 rebounds
• Senior Romar Reid (Mount Vernon, N.Y./Woodstock Academy/Manhattan), 2 steals

OPPONENT LEADERS

• Graduate student Sean Bresnan, 13 points, 2-for-4 three-pointers
• Graduate student Marc Dadika, 12 points, 10 rebounds, 6-for-9 field goals
• Graduate student Kasai Brown, 10 points, 6 rebounds, 4-for-6 field goals
• Graduate student Bryan Powell, 12 points, 6-for-14 field goals
• Redshirt junior Jamaal Waters, 8 rebounds

GAME FACTS

• The contest featured the last two teams with spotless NE10 records.
• Saint Michael's is 4-0 in NE10 play for the first time since 2006-07.
• The Purple Knights had last defeated a nationally-ranked team on Feb. 4, 2017, and most recently defeated a team as high as 19th on Feb. 13, 2016, with an 84-75 home victory over No. 19 Saint Anselm.
• Saint Michael's won its second consecutive one-point decision, leading for just 23 seconds during the game.
• Yepdo scored 20 of his points in the second half, going for 20 in a contest for the third time this season.
• Since a season-opening loss to Bloomfield College, which is also tied for 10th in the D2CSC East Region poll, the Purple Knights have won five games in a row.

THE ACTION

• Pace used a 22-6 run to forge ahead by a 26-11 count with 7:18 left in the opening half, as six scorers combined to shoot 10-for-14. Dadika's jumper just before the final buzzer had the Setters up 38-24 at halftime.
• Waters' lay-in at 17:24 of the second half gave Pace a game-high 42-24 lead.
• Yepdo (6 points) and Fricas (5) did all the scoring in a quick 11-1 spurt that made it a single-digit game (43-35) just 3:09 later, and Yepdo's lay-up at 12:21 produced a 45-40 margin.
• Brown's jumper pushed the Setter lead back into double figures, 53-42, at 10:28, and his three-pointer at 5:41 still had Pace comfortably in front, 59-51.
• Fricas' off-balance three brought Saint Michael's within 59-56 at 4:31, and Reid's trio of free throws had the hosts down just 63-62 with 1:02 to go.
• The Setters split a pair of two-shot trips to the charity stripe at 38 and 19 seconds, around a Purple Knight miss, and Yepdo's two freebies with 10.1 seconds to go had his team within 65-64.
• Following a timeout, Brzezinski stole the ensuing inbound pass before drawing a foul, ultimately sinking both free throws with 8.1 ticks left to put Saint Michael's into the lead for the first time since 5-4. Brzezinski had his second critical performance in the late stages in four days, having forced a Southern New Hampshire University player into a missed last-second lay-up on Wednesday before pulling the clinching rebound.
• After a Pace miss and a Saint Michael's turnover, the Setters had one final chance to inbound under the hosts' hoop with 0.8 seconds remaining, but a challenging reverse lay-up try was offline at the buzzer.

NEXT SAINT MICHAEL'S GAME

• Tuesday at The College of Saint Rose, 7:30 p.m.