Men's College Basketball
Rider University 58, Binghamton University 50
LAWRENCEVILLE— Maybe it was the tryptophan, the active ingredient in turkey that is believed to make you sleepy. Maybe it was the fact that in the last 10 days the Broncs have played five games in four cities in two countries. Whatever the reason for making just eight of their first 34 shots, including none of their first 13 three-point attempts, the Broncs found a way to win.
“We really had to dig deep tonight,” said Rider head coach Tommy Dempsey. “We had nothing going, to say the least. We had to fight, we had to stay together and we had to be persistent, and it was good enough to get us over the top.”
Senior Ryan Thompson (Mt. Laurel, N.J./Lenape) scored 21 points, 12 in the final 5:38, to lead Rider to a come-from-behind win over Binghamton Saturday evening. “Today our offense was not clicking but we concentrated on defense and that bailed us out,” Thompson said. “We got stops when we needed them.”
The 50 points is the lowest Rider has allowed in a game in 22 games, since defeating Fairfield 66-49 on January 23, 2009.
“I applaud Rider,” said Binghamton's interim head coach Mark Macon, the former three-time All-American at Temple. “They did a great job of coming back and playing well in the last eight minutes. They showed what they were made of. They are a veteran team.”
Binghamton (2-5) led 46-44 before Rider went on a 12-2 run, nine points by Thompson, to take a 56-48 lead with :53 left to play.
Trailing 31-20, Rider (4-3) went on a 13-1 run, four points by junior Jhamar Youngblood (Elizabeth, N.J./St. Patrick's), to take a 33-32 lead with 13:35 left to play. Youngblood, who sat out the last two games with a foot injury, finished with 10 points in 21 minutes off the bench.
“Ryan and Jhamar really stepped up,” Dempsey said. “They played real well in clutch spots down the stretch.”
“The main message we were given before the game today was defense,” Youngblood said. “That is what we were practicing. To hold this team to 50 points shows everyone was playing good defense.”
With the victory Rider is now 2-0 at home this season and has now won 24 of its last 28 home games.
Rider shot just 34 percent (21-61) from the field, including just seven of 23 from three-pointers. “When your legs are tired the ball tends not to go in,” Dempsey said of his globe-hopping team. “Maybe the long trip got the best of us.”
Also for Rider sophomore Novar Gadson (Philadelphia, Pa./John Bartram) finished with nine points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
“(Sophomore) Jermaine Jackson (Reading, Pa./Reading) took four charges, (freshman) Carl Johnson (Philadelphia, Pa./St. Thomas More) hit a big three and (freshman) Jonathon Thompson (Orlando, Fla./Jones) hit a three. Those guys gave us nice energy off the bench,” Dempsey said.
Ryan Thompson was four for five from the foul line and has now made 32 of his last 35 free throws.
For Binghamton, Umur Peten compiled 14 points and Kyrie Sutton added 12 points and six rebounds.
Rider trailed 25-20 at halftime after the Broncs made just eight of 32 shots, including 0 for 12 from three-point range. “An easy thing for a fan to say is 'stop shooting' after a half like that,” Dempsey said, “but when the other team is putting five guys in the lane, making it hard to drive it in, sometimes you are forced to shoot from the outside. We are leading our league in three-point field goal percentage. I don't focus on the number of threes we shoot, I focus on the quality of the shot. We got 12 good looks in the first half, but none of them went in. But we made seven of our last 10.”
Binghamton jumped out to a 9-3 lead in the first five minutes of the game, three points by Greer Wright, and led 16-10 after nine minutes of play. Rider's only lead of the first half was 10-9. Wright finished with seven points and six rebounds in 25 minutes before fouling out.
Rider and Binghamton have now met four times, with the Bearcats winning once, last year in Binghamton, on their way to a 23-9 season in which they won the America East title and advanced to the NCAAs.
Rider will host Saint Joseph's Monday night. The game will be televised on Philadelphia Comcast SportsNet.
It will be Rider's sixth game in 12 days, but at least there will be no traveling before then, and hopefully, no more turkey.
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