Pleasantville, N.Y. - Senior guard Nate Champion (Logansport, Ind./Logansport) scored 23 points and graduate student center Jim Janson (Scotia, N.Y./Scotia-Glenville) blocked a program-record 10 shots to lead the Le Moyne College men's basketball team to a 60-58 win over Pace University on Tuesday evening in the regular-season finale at the Goldstein Fitness Center.

With the win, the Dolphins clinch the Southwest Division's third seed in the Northeast-10 Conference Championships and will travel to Franklin Pierce University on Sunday for a quarterfinal match-up at 3:00 p.m.

Champion recorded 11 points in the first half and then posted 12 points after intermission, while grabbing a team-best six rebounds and dishing out a game-high five assists. Janson added 10 points and three rebounds to his program-record block total. John Tomsich '99 set the previous record of seven blocks on December 8, 1995 against Molloy, which was then tied by Tomsich (11/19/98), Brendan Bayly '04 (1/31/01), Laurence Ekperigin '10 (2/10/09) and Janson (1/15/11). Junior guard Naté Gause (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Poughkeepsie/Quinnipiac) recorded 17 points, including 11 in the first half, and five rebounds in 19 minutes off the bench before fouling out.

Denzel Primus-Devonish tallied 23 points, including 19 after intermission, in his final collegiate game, while adding two rebounds, two assists and two steals. In their final game, Kai Smith nailed four three-pointers and dished out four assists and Jamaal James posted 11 points and seven rebounds, while Jonathan Merceus recorded eight points and a game-best 17 rebounds (seven offensive).

After the teams traded points over the opening 5:07 of the contest, Champion and Gause drilled three-pointers on consecutive possessions to give the Dolphins a 13-6 advantage with 13:31 left.

Following an 8-4 spurt by the Setters, which featured four different scorers, the Dolphins outscored Pace, 14-5, over the final 10:28 of the first half. Gause had eight of the points on a three-pointer, two free throws and a conventional three-point play, while Champion added four points and sophomore guard Qwadere Lovell (Mount Vernon, N.Y./Mount Vernon) converted a fast-break lay-up as the Dolphins took a 31-19 lead into the intermission.

Pace jumped out of the gates in the second half to cut its deficit to just one 2:03 into the stanza. Smith hit a three-pointer, James recorded a three-point play, Primus-Devonish hit two free throws and then buried a three-pointer to force a Le Moyne timeout.

The Dolphins responded with a 7-2 spurt to push their lead back to six with 15:45 left. Janson had the first five and then Champion made two foul shots.

After Primus-Devonish hit a three-pointer to make the score 41-38, Champion made a pair of lay-ups to extend the lead to seven, but that would be the game's largest margin the rest of the way.

The Setters answered back with a 9-1 run to take their first lead of the game with 10:03 remaining. Primus-Devonish accounted for all nine points as he made a lay-up, buried a three-pointer while getting fouled and then hit the ensuing free throw and then nailed another three-pointer for the lead.

Janson then hit a free throw to start a stretch in which the game was tied at 47, 49, 51, 53 and 54. After Lovell tied the score at 54 with a free throw with 3:24 left, Champion knocked down a fast-break three-pointer from the right wing with 2:53 to go to put the Dolphins in front for good.

After James hit two free throws 39 seconds apart to pull the Setters within 57-56 with 1:37 remaining, junior forward Ryan Romich (Groton, Mass./Groton-Dunstable/Vermont Academy) made two free throws with 1:10 left to push Le Moyne's lead back to three.

After Primus-Devonish and freshman forward Stan Buczek">Stan Buczek (Port Jervis, N.Y./Burke Catholic) traded 1-for-2 performances at the foul line, Primus-Devonish drew a foul with eight seconds left. He made the first to get the Setters within two. His second attempt was off the mark, but the rebound went out of bounds off a Dolphin to stay Pace possession. Primus-Devonish missed a three-pointer with eight seconds left, Ahmad George misfired on a jumper with five seconds to go and Merceus had a tip-in attempt roll off the rim at the buzzer to seal the victory for the Dolphins.

Le Moyne (16-10, 13-7 NE-10), which finished the regular season with its fewest conference losses since the 1997-98 season (14-6), fell to Franklin Pierce in the only regular season meeting of the season, 72-67, at home on February 1.