By Michael Letendre
PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y. – The women’s basketball team at Pace University is a perfect 5-0 to start the 2023-24 season.
And former Bristol Eastern standout, Ciara Collins, is a big part of that success.
The shooting guard/small forward has started four of five games to date for the NCAA Division II program, posting solid numbers while the Setters have made all the big shots late, winning its first four games by seven points or less.
The current Northeast-10 leader has gone 3-for-3 from its home base at the Health, Fitness & Recreation Center in Pleasantville, New York while the month of December has Pace traveling to Vermont and New Jersey for competition.
Collins, a sophomore at Pace, averages 20.0 minutes-per-game and has yet to miss a free throw – something she excelled at from the Thomas M. Monahan Gymnasium on the campus of Bristol Eastern during her scholastic days.
She’s a slick 16-for-16 from the charity stripe this year, leading the team in free throw percentage (1.000).
Collins might have the sweetest looking stroke from the foul line and the outstanding competitor was consistently one of the top scholastic free throw shooters in the Central Connecticut Conference.
Overall, she averages 6.4 points and nearly three rebounds-per-game for undefeated Pace.
Collins pulls down just under one offensive rebound-per-game while she’s hit two three-pointers to date.
Against the College of St. Rose on November 15, she dropped in a season-high 11 points over 24 minutes in Pace’s 63-56 victory.
She went a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line against St. Rose while Collins grabbed a season best four rebounds against St. Thomas Aquinas this past Sunday.
In a showdown at the University of New Haven on November 21, Collins hit a quick shot to open second half play to give the Setters a double-digit lead (27-16).
She has three games of three or more rebounds and after coming off the bench to open the season versus Bloomfield, she’s made four consecutive starts for the Setters.
Overall, she’s started all but six games for the Setters, making several starts as a first year collegiate competitor in 2022-23.
As a freshman, Collins was named to the NE10 All-Rookie Team, earning Rookie of the Week honors for the week of December 20.
She posted a career-high 17 points in the Setters’ December 13 victory against Felician while leading the program in free throw percentage (86.8-percent).
Collins averaged 7.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.2 assists-per-game over 29 contests – 24 of those coming over starting assignments – for the program (14-16).
She missed just five free throws (33-of-38) all season long in 2022-23 and is currently a 90.7-percent shooter from the line for her career at Pace.
A model student, Collins made the NE10’s Academic Honor Roll over her first two semesters.
And then there was the scholastic component as Collins became the third 1,000-point scorer from Bristol Eastern to attend Pace along with Ginny Torreso and Taylor Losey.
Currently, Ziogas (1991-1996) is fifth all-time in scoring at Pace with 1,540 points while Losey is tied for 13th place at 1,239.
As a senior at Eastern, Collins was a double-double machine, averaging 23.7 points and 10.9 rebounds-per-game.
Collins ended her scholastic career with 1,531 points (third all-time in the city), draining 123 three-pointers.
She connected on 82.5-percent of her free throws and averaged 7.3 rebounds-per-game for her career – hauling in over 600 in 83 games played (81 starts).
Collins, at one point, led the Lancers in scoring 35 straight times while defensively, she blocked 1.3 shots-per-game as a senior.
She was a four time CCC South All-Conference performer and made the All-State team twice.
Collins was a perennial member of the Academic All-Conference team and a National Honor Society honoree, a member of the Model UN program and finished in the top-10 percent of her class four years in a row.
Collins and Pace return to Connecticut on Wednesday, February 7, squaring off against Southern Connecticut State University in a NE10 bout (5 p.m. in New Haven).
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