Iona College 92, Rider University 81
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Game
LAWRENCEVILLE?Despite 26 points, nine rebounds and eight assists from junior Tammy Meyers (Willingboro), the Rider University women's basketball team lost the 2008-09 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference opener against Iona Friday night. “When we forced Iona to run the half court offense, we did pretty well,” said head coach Lynn Milligan. “We had too many breakdowns on defense in the second half and that cost us. I can't fault the effort."
Meyers played 37 minutes and missed tying a career-high by two points. “Tammy is a warrior,” Milligan said. “I expect that effort from her every night and she expects that from herself. She causes a lot of mismatches for the other team.”
Tied at 53 with 17:29 remaining in the game, Iona (6-2, 1-0 MAAC) went on a 5-0 run, two points each by Thazina Cook and Catherine Lutz. Cook finished with 15 points and Lutz scored five points.
Meyers hit a layup to cut the Gael lead to 64-62 with 12 minutes remaining before Iona responded with a 10-2 run, five points from Suzi Fregosi. Fregosi led four Gaels in double-digits with 21 points and also dished out seven assists.
Rider, (2-4, 0-1 MAAC) got to within four at 77-73 with 8:40 remaining on the strength of a three-pointer from junior Amanda Sepulveda (Perth Amboy/Hun). Sepulveda had 12 points on the night including three field goals from beyond the arc.
The Gaels scored the next seven in a row, opening up an 11 point lead with six minutes remaining and held the Broncs without a field goal for over six minutes until sophomore Cintella Spotwood (Trenton/Trenton Central) made the score 86-78 Iona with 2:27 remaining. Spotwood scored a career-high 11 points while pulling in a career-high nine rebounds.
Rider cut the Gael lead to seven with one minute remaining (88-81) but that was as close as the Broncs would get as Iona hit four free throws for the final score.
Trailing 44-31 with 3:37 left in the opening half, Rider went on a 17-4 run, six points by junior Ashley Anderson (East Orange) and went into the half tied at 48. Anderson finished with 10 points in 15 minutes off the bench, including a perfect six for six from the foul line and two for two from the field. “Ashley is accepting her role,” said Milligan. “She is battling for rebounds and finishing. She put herself in a position to be successful tonight and gave us a much needed spark.”
“We could have folded being down (as many as 14) that early,” Milligan added. “We fought and battled all the way back. We felt that the team that defended better in the second half was going to win the game and we told the players that at halftime. We had breakdowns in the second half that cost us.”
Iona caused 10 Rider turnovers in the second period and had only three after turning the ball over 17 times in the first half.
“Iona switched to zone in the second half and we missed some open looks,” Milligan said. “Iona kept the ball in Fregosi's hands and she hit some shots.” Fregosi scored 12 of her team-high 21 points in the second half.
“I felt that we were playing too fast in the first half,” said Iona head coach Anthony Bozzella. “We want to play fast but fast under control. We controlled the ball a lot more in the second half and got the ball into the hands of the players that were able to make plays for us.”
After making 17 field goals in period one (59 percent), Rider was held to nine for 32 shooting (28 percent) in the second half including making three of 17 three-pointers.
Also for the Broncs, senior Shaunice Parker (Waldorf, Md./West Lake) had her 11th career ?double-double' with 10 rebounds and 13 points, her second ?double-double' effort in a row after 15 points and 12 rebounds against Texas-Pan American on Monday night.
The game featured 49 turnovers and 48 fouls. The Broncs out-rebounded Iona 49-29 including 23-12 on the offensive glass. “If we are consistently out-rebounding our opponent that's only going to help us,” Milligan added. “We are eventually going to reap the rewards from that.”
There were seven lead changes and three ties. Iona scored 34 of its points off of Bronc turnovers.
“A lot of our turnovers were caused by us trying too hard,” Milligan added. “I can live with the aggressive turnovers but we need to do a better job controlling some of the other turnovers like traveling and bad passes. You turn the ball over 29 times and still score 81 points. That's a hard thing to do. You look at the stat sheet and wonder how you lost.”
Five Broncs scored in double-digits and the offensive output of 81 points is a season high. The Broncs last scored 81 points in an overtime loss against Siena during the 2007-08 season and that was also the last time five Rider players have hit for double-digits in the scoring column.
“We spread out the shots tonight,” Milligan added. “We had four players attempt nine shots or more and that's a good thing. It makes us harder to defend. We just gave up too many points tonight.”
“We are built to have a balanced attack,” Milligan said. “In order for teams to have to worry about us more, we need a balanced attack. That's one thing that Iona has, they are balanced across the board and that's what we are striving to be.”
The Broncs were held to five for 22 shooting from beyond the arc (23 percent) with the Gaels hitting nine times from three-point range at a 45 percent clip. “When we needed an outside shot, we just couldn't get one to fall,” Milligan added. “We knew Iona could shoot and they did that tonight.”
The Gaels shot 50 percent (32-64) for the game.
This was the 26th meeting between the two teams with Iona winning 16 times. The teams split two games last season with both teams winning on their home court. The Gaels have won seven of the last eight in the series.
The last time Rider allowed 92 points was the 2006-07 season opener against Rice.
“We put some points on the board and it was unfortunate that we gave up 92 to them,” said Milligan. “We'll keep working and get it back together for Sunday. When everything breaks our way, things will explode for us and we'll start rolling from there. We are doing a lot of things right, we just need to put it all together in the same game. We are ready to take the next step.”
Rider entered the game alowing only 58.2 points per game and Iona entered the game 27th in the nation in scoring defense. The result? The teams combined for 173 points.
After starting the season 2-1, the Broncs have lost three straight.
This is Rider's 12th season in the MAAC and the Broncs are now 4-8 in MAAC openers. Rider's last win to open conference play came against Iona during the 2002-03 season. That game was also a wild one with the Broncs prevailing 83-76 on December 6, 2002.
Over 1,000 fans packed Alumni Gym including almost 300 student-athletes as part of the Department of Athletics Code Cranberry Initiative. Code Cranberry encourages members of Rider's 20 varsity teams to come out in a unified showing of support for the other varsity teams at Rider.
The Broncs travel to Loyola for a MAAC game on Sunday at 2:00pm.
“We are expecting a tough contested game,” Milligan said. “Loyola does some things similar to Iona so that will help us a little bit, preparation wise. “We need to bounce back and pull out the positives from tonight's game. It is very important for us to split this weekend. If we play as hard as we did tonight, we'll be ok.”
The Greyhounds traveled into Riverdale, New York and defeated Manhattan 78-65 Friday afternoon.
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