Men's College Basketball
La Salle University 69, Rider University 60
LAWRENCEVILLE-Senior Ryan Thompson (Mt. Laurel, N.J./Lenape) scored 16 points but it was not enough as the Broncs lost to La Salle Wednesday evening. "We found a way to make a game of it and showed a lot of fight," said Rider head coach Tommy Dempsey. "We were right in it until the very end."
The loss snapped Rider's three-game winning streak. The last time Rider lost in Alumni Gym was January 30, 2009, 10 home games ago. "It is never easy to lose, especially at home," Dempsey said, "but I took more positives from the performance than negatives. There was a spirit, there was a fight, there was a toughness."
For La Salle (6-2) senior guard Rodney Green scored 25 points and added seven assists and six rebounds. The Explorers out-scored Rider 7-0 over the final 1:44, three points by Green, all from the foul line.
"I thought it was two good teams who should compete at the top of their leagues," Dempsey said, "and a tough game to lose."
"We were fortunate tonight," said La Salle head coach Dr. John Giannini. "Rider has some good wins this year, they are a veteran group of players and they rarely lose at home. Rider played with great effort and we couldn't keep them off the boards in the second half."
A three point field goal by Thompson cut the lead to four, 56-52, and his two foul shots made it 58-54 with 5:36 remaining. A dunk by junior Mike Ringgold (Philadelphia, Pa./Roman Catholic) cut the lead to 60-56 with 4:00 left and his tip in with 3:15 cut the lead to 60-58. Two foul shots by junior Jhamar Youngblood (Elizabeth, N.J./St. Patrick's) with 1:44 left cut the lead to 62-60, but that was as close as the Broncs could get.
Ringgold finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Youngblood finished with eight points and six assists. Thompson scored 16 points, 11 in the second half, on six of 19 shooting. "Ryan continued to play through it," Dempsey said. "I knew the only chance we had to win the game was for Ryan to have a big second half and I thought he had one."
"I'm in a bit of a slump right now," Thompson said. "Not all of my shots are falling. Tonight I felt pretty good in the second half."
Also for Rider (6-4) sophomore Novar Gadson (Philadelphia, Pa./John Bartram) scored 14 points and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds. "I thought Novar showed a lot of heart tonight," Dempsey said. "He was one of the most competitive guys in the game. He played a really high level and was one of the toughest guys on the floor and you have to be if you are going to rebound against a team like that."
"It was just a matter of trying to win a game," Gadson said. "It would have been a big win for us."
Although La Salle won the battle of the boards 44-40, Rider out-rebounded the much taller Explorers 23-15 in the second half and out-scored La Salle 35-31 in the second half. "We brought the fight to them in the second half," Dempsey said. "We competed extremely hard on the glass against a huge, physical basketball team. We had 18 offensive rebounds to their 10."
Trailing 42-29, Rider out-scored La Salle 9-4, three points by sophomore Brandon Penn (Philadelphia, Pa./Paul Robeson), to cut the lead to 46-38 with 14 minutes left to play. Penn finished with eight points in 12 minutes off the bench. "Brandon is a very good shooter when his feet are set and he's open," Dempsey said. "We needed those threes that he made tonight. They loosened up their defense a bit and got them out of the zone."
Trailing 52-38, Rider went on a 9-0 run, four points by Thompson, to cut the lead to 52-47 with 9:55 left to play.
"The key part of the comeback was the competitiveness of our kids," Dempsey said, "especially on a night when we had nothing going." Rider shot 31.9 percent from the field. "If you had told me we were going to shoot 31 percent before the game I would have figured it was going to be a very long night."
Holding a 7-6 lead, La Salle went on a 20-7 run, five points each by senior guard Kimmani Barrett and Green, to take a 27-13 lead with 7:20 left in the first half. Barrett, who is averaging 13.6 points per game, finished with 11.
"We were a little hesitant early in the game," Dempsey said. "We dug ourselves a bit of a hole. It certainly looked like they were the better basketball team in the first half and it looked like it was going to be a very hard game to win."
La Salle led 38-25 at the half.
The Broncs and Explorers are former East Coast Conference rivals (1974-75 to 1982-1983) and Middle Atlantic Conference rivals (1966-67 to 1972-73). Rider and La Salle have now met 29 times since the series began in 1932-33, with Rider winning six. La Salle has won the last three meetings, last year (92-75) at La Salle and in the 1983 East Coast Conference playoffs at Lafayette. The last time Rider defeated La Salle was January 31, 1983 at La Salle.
The Broncs travel to Maryland Saturday to take on the University of Maryland Baltimore County in a 7pm tip off. Rider hosted UMBC last year as part of the BracketBuster weekend, defeating the Retrievers 71-65. Rider and UMBC were East Coast Conference rivals for two years (1990-91 and 1991-92). Rider and UMBC have met 10 times since the series began in 1987-88 with Rider winning six. Last year was the first meeting with UMBC since the 1996-97 season, a 66-49 Rider win.
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