By Michael Letendre

MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Pace Women’s Basketball team fell behind by 18 points against Southern New Hampshire University on Saturday afternoon before the Setters and former Bristol Eastern sharpshooter Ciara Collins put tougher a huge run to nearly seize the lead.

The Penmen’s edge was chopped to one with seconds remaining but the squad hit late free throws to push the lead out as SHNU scooped up a 77-74 win from the Stan Spirou Field House in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Pace (8-13 overall, 5-9 NE-10, 5-5 on the road) trailed 47-29 with 1:10 remaining in the second quarter, absorbing a sizable 49-34 deficit at the half.

But Collins netted eight points over the first 5:12 of the third quarter to make it a seven point game (54-47).

And late in the game, Collins found Mackenzie Kock (14 points) for a huge 3-point bomb and with 26 seconds remaining, the Setters were down just 75-74.

On the ensuing play, Collins committed a foul on Adriana Timberlake – disqualifying herself in the process.

The foul was a good one as Timberlake missed both throws with 22.4 seconds left but Pace was never able to draw even with a game-tying 3 – absorbing a tough three-point loss.

“Well, I just think we obviously fought back and we catch ourselves in this situation a lot of times where we’re just crawling back from [being] down,” said Collins after the game. “I don’t know. It’s so hard because we come back and then there’s so much more energy and then, we have to [commit] a foul because we’re down and then they get even more ahead.” 

The 74 points were the most Pace scored in a game this season but the squad was able to grab the lead for only 67 seconds which came off a 17-15 edge as Collins nabbed a huge offensive rebound to help her team get another hoop.

The former Bristol standout didn’t have her best shooting night, going 2-of-12 from the field and missing all four of her long range attempts, but Collins was active all over the court in other areas to give her squad a chance to steal the contest late.

Nearly tallying a double-double, Collins went a perfect 8-of-8 from the free throw line on her way to 12 points while also snaring nine rebounds and two steals over 29 minutes of action.

As usual, Collins started the game for the Setters but the Penmen shot out to a quick 7-0 cushion before the Pace went on a 17-8 burst to scoop up a 17-16 lead through 10 minutes of play.

SNHU (14-4 overall, 10-3 NE-10) went on a scoring spree in the second period, posting 33 points, to snare a 15-point bulge at the half.

But to start the third quarter, Collins exploded a bit for the visitors.

She nabbed two offensive boards, eventually scoring on a scoop shot, and then drained two foul shots to trim the deficit to 51-43 with 7:24 to play in the third.

After a quick breather, Collins came back in and sent down a midrange jumper and when her two charity tosses found the bottom of the net, the deficit was knocked to seven (54-47) with 4:48 to play in the third.

An NBA range 3 by Koch got Pace within four with just over four minutes left in the third – capping a 13-3 run – but the Penmen woke back up a bit.

Collins picked up her third foul seconds later and retreated to the bench and off a quarter ending 7-2 push, SNHU was up by nine at 61-52 with the fourth period on tap.

The host squad never relented, Collins picked up her fourth foul with 3:27 left in the game but she was quickly reinserted into the mix – with Pace trailing 73-66.

An 8-2 Pace jaunt was highlighted by a Koch 3 off the Collins assist as the comeback was almost complete.

Trailing 75-74 with 10.3 seconds left, Pace had control of the ball but a scrum led to a steal and seconds later, SHNU’s Jenna Roche dropped in two insurance free throw to make it a 77-74 game.

SHNU had fouls to waste late and used most of them up before one last ditch 3 by Lauren Hackett (14 points) just rimmed out as Pace dropped a heartbreaking three-point decision on the road, 77-74.

“It’s hard to crawl back from when we’re down,” said Collins. “But we definitely made the effort which was good.”

NOTES…For the season, Collins has played in 20 of 21 games, making 18 starts along the way…She’s averaging 8.0 points and 3.5 rebounds-per-game… Collins has kicked in 11 three-pointers to date and remains a tremendous free throw shooter, dropping in 29-of-32 charity tosses for a slick 90.6-percent shooting clip.