COLCHESTER, Vt. - The Saint Michael's College men's basketball team lost to Pace University, 77-68, on Saturday during Northeast 10 Conference play in the Ross Sports Center. With three regular-season games remaining, the Purple Knights are tied with Assumption University for fourth place in the NE10, just one win shy of second place. The top four teams host at least one contest in the seven-team NE10 Championship.
 
The Purple Knights honored their six seniors during a pregame Senior Day ceremony: Sebastian Andersson (Stockholm, Sweden/Korrespondensgymnasiet/Eastern Washington), Zocko Littleton (Albany, Ga./Osborne/Rider), Nolan Marold (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Brewster Academy/Loyola Chicago), Marcus Meeks (Prairie Village, Kan./Brewster Academy), head manager Morgan DesLauriers (Georgia, Vt./BFA-Saint Albans), and manager Luwago Kaiza (Leominster, Mass./Leominster).
 
RECORDS

• Saint Michael's (15-10, 9-6 NE10), Pace (15-8, 10-5 NE10)

SAINT MICHAEL'S LEADERS

• Sophomore Greg Kenney (Williston Park, N.Y./The Frederick Gunn School/LIU), 19 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals, 10-for-12 free throws
• Littleton, 14 points, 4-for-4 free throws
• First-year Quintin Floyd (Windsor, Conn./Choate Rosemary Hall), 9 points, 2-for-3 three-pointers
• Junior Latiek Briscoe Jr. (Brooklyn, N.Y./Saint Francis Prep/Saint Edward's), 8 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals, 3-for-5 field goals
• Marold, 8 points, 4-for-4 free throws

OPPONENT LEADERS

• Senior Jabari Nurse, 23 points, 8-for-15 field goals, 3-for-4 three-pointers
• Graduate student Jaden Kealey, 17 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists
• First-year David Dix, 11 points, 6 rebounds, 3-for-4 three-pointers
• Redshirt senior Paxton Davidson, 9 points, 6 assists

THE ACTION

• Kealey scored the first four points en route to his team leading 7-2 by 17:43 of the first half before the Purple Knights countered with a 10-2 run during which four players scored. The hosts were up 17-13 on Briscoe's three-pointer at 14:10.
• Four ties and three lead changes later, first-year Saif Saleh converted back-to-back hoops to spark a tiebreaking 9-2 run that gave Pace the lead for good and a 37-30 advantage with 2:40 left in the half.
• First-year Ben Manuel's tip-in extended the Setters' advantage to 46-34 at 14:13 of the second stanza before the Purple Knights slowly chipped away, rallying within 52-49 on first-year John Kelley's (Plaistow, N.H./Kimball Union Academy) shot-clock-beating triple at 8:11.
• Saint Michael's was within 57-55 on Kenney's freebies at 5:37 and, after Pace pushed the lead back to 65-57, Littleton made two free throws and Kenney buried three at 3:00 in the same sequence, which featured a technical foul on the Setter bench. The hosts were within 65-62.
• However, Nurse buried a three 17 seconds later to kick off a 7-0 run that put the game out of reach.

NEXT SAINT MICHAEL'S GAME

• Wednesday vs. American International College, 7:30 p.m.