PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y. (2/21/23) - The Franklin Pierce men's basketball team dropped its regular-season finale on the road at Pace, 81-56, on Tuesday evening at the Goldstein Fitness Center.

With the loss, the Ravens round out their record to 16-11 (11-9 NE10) on the season, while the Setters move to 19-9 (11-9 NE10).

In the first half, the Ravens found themselves in an early 8-2 hole against the Setters, but were briefly rescued by five points from sophomore Sean Trumper (Ahsford. United Kingdom) on consecutive possessions. However, the Ravens were put right back into a tricky position just as quickly, as Pace climbed their way up to a 20-9 advantage at the midway point of the half. At the 6:09 mark, senior Brandon Kolek (Cumberland, R.I.) drained a three-point jumper from out high to kick-off a 9-2 run by the Ravens, which eventually brought them back to within two points of the setters nearing the end of the half. To close it out officially, both teams would trade points from behind the arc in the final minute, with Pierce's belonging to Mohamad Traore (Hyde Park, Mass.), to carry a 37-33 Setter lead into the break.

Junior Sean Bresnan opened the second half for the Ravens with a pair of trips to the free throw line, going 4-of-4 to tie the game at 37-all. However, it did not help that the Setters found early success with the long ball in the second, leaning into an 11-0 run with nine of the points coming from outside the arc. To try and match their opponent's success, the Ravens countered with two three's of their own from Kolek and Traore on back-to-back possession, but simply could not stop Pace from piling on the points at the other end. After shooting 4-of-6 from the perimeter in the final ten minutes of the second half, the Setters eventually built enough of a cushion to claim the overall victory, outscoring the Ravens in total, 44-23 en route to the 81-56 final score.

Sean Trumper put forward an 18-point performance for the Ravens on a 4-of-11 day from the field, adding in six rebounds, three assists and a steal to lead the way. Sophomore Mohamad Traore was the only other Raven to reach double-figures, as he scored a respective 11 points on the evening with three boards. Collectively, Pierce shot 17-of-51 (33.3%) from the field, and struggled mightily from behind the arc with 6-of-27 (22.2%) success.

Men's Basketball will be the eighth seed in the upcoming Northeast-10 Championship Tournament, and will host ninth-seeded Assumption University on Friday, February 24^th at 7:00 p.m. in the opening round.