Women's College Basketball
Rider University 56, Canisius College 55
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Game
BUFFALO, N.Y.?Senior Shaunice Parker (Waldorf, Md./West Lake) hit an 18-foot jumper with 3.3 seconds left in the game, giving the Rider University women's basketball team a come from behind one-point win at Canisius on Sunday afternoon in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game. “It was an intense game,” Parker said. “Canisius is a good team and our defensive effort led to the win. As far as the game-winner, I was open and I just took the shot and it went in.”
“It was a great game and the kids did a great job following the game plan to a ?T',” said head coach Lynn Milligan. “We practice all of the special situations, the ?down and distance' plays and I think we went through all of them in the last 44 seconds. In February, you win games with planning, good discipline and solid defense and we did that today.”
Parker's winning shot was the 11th and final lead change of the game, giving her a ?double-double' with 11 points and 11 rebounds. For Parker it was the 14th ?double-double' of her career and fifth of the season.
“The only thing running through my mind with all of the lead changes what that we still had time on the clock and we practice these situations all the time,” Parker said. “We just kept our composure and made the play.”
Parker now has 734 career rebounds, passing Kara Borel '07 for third place on the all-time rebound list at Rider.
With the Broncs leading 52-50, Amanda Cavo capped an 8-0 Golden Griffin run with a three-pointer to give Canisius (16-6, 8-3 MAAC) a one-point lead, 53-52 with 44 seconds left in regulation.
“We're playing with more confidence,” Milligan added. “We've gained a little more maturity as the season has gone on by playing well on the road and all of those things help us through adverse situations.” Five of Rider's eight wins this season have come on the road and the Broncs have matched last year's win total with seven games left in the regular season.
Junior Tammy Meyers grabbed an offensive rebound and hit a lay up with 22 seconds left as the Broncs regained a one-point lead 54-53. Meyers finished with a game-high 18 points to go along with six assists.
Brittane Russell scored a lay up with 14 seconds to give the Golden Griffins a one-point margin, 55-54 and setup Parker's game-winner.
Trailing 45-38 with 11:41 left in the game, Rider (8-14, 5-6 MAAC) went on a 14-0 run, six points by Parker and five by junior Amanda Sepulveda (Perth Amboy/Hun) to take a 52-45 lead with 2:32 left in the game. Sepulveda had 12 points, four rebounds and three assists while playing all 40 minutes. “Amanda is doing a really nice job of running the offense for us,” Milligan added. “When our opponent takes away option ?A', Amanda, as option B, C or D was able to get free on some of the plays and was able to make a couple of threes for us. A lot of Amanda's scoring did not come off an initial attack. Amanda is the kind of player that can burn you at the end if you forget where she is.”
Rider held Canisius without a point for over nine minutes during the run.
In the first half, trailing 2-0, Rider went on an 11-0 run, six points by Sepulveda to take nine point lead seven minutes into the game. Canisius started the game shooting one for seven from the field. “It was huge getting the early lead against Canisius,” Milligan said. “They have a trend of being extremely hot in the first four minutes that they play and holding them down early made the game more manageable.”
With Rider leading 11-2, the Golden Griffins responded with a 21-6 run, eight points by Ellie Radke, opening up a 23-17 lead with five minutes left in the first half. Radke led Canisius with 13 points.
Trailing by five, with three minutes left in the first period, Rider scored the last four points of the half, two points each by sophomore Cintella Spotwood (Trenton, Trenton Central) and freshman Sarah Homan (Upper Darby, Pa./Delco Christian) to cut the Golden Griffin lead to 27-26 at halftime. Spotwood finished with two points with Homan adding seven to go along with two blocks.
The Broncs held Golden Griffin leading scorer Marie Warner to only seven points, 10 under her season average. “The key to the game was the job Shaunice [Parker] did on Warner,” Milligan said. “She did a phenomenal job on her. Warner is one of the top two players in the MAAC and dropped 24 points and 13 rebounds on us nine days ago. We were able to hold her to three of 13 shooting and most of that was because of Shaunice.”
Rider out-rebounded Canisius 36-25.
This is only Rider's second win all-time at Canisius, having last defeated the Golden Griffins 66-63 in Buffalo, New York, on January 9, 2000. Rider has now won six of the 27 all-time meetings, breaking a 17 game losing streak to Canisius. The Golden Griffins won at Rider on January 23, 2009, by a 71-59 score.
“The last Canisius game was fresh in our minds,” Milligan added. “We saw them only nine days ago and we made some adjustments to put ourselves in better situations today.”
The Broncs have won two straight and six of their last eight games, sweeping the Western, New York trip for the first time ever in MAAC competition.
Rider is 2-0 in one-point games this season, having won at FDU in overtime, 65-64 on November 21, 2008. The Broncs have won 19 of 37 one-point games in the past 31 seasons and have won two out of three one-point games in the series against Canisius.
Rider hosts Fairfield in a MAAC game on February 6, at 7:00pm in Alumni Gym on the Lawrenceville, New Jersey campus.
“Fairfield is a huge challenge,” Milligan said. “They are a terrific team and they are playing very well right now. We will have a chance to come home, get off the road a little bit and it is another opportunity for us to beat a quality opponent in the MAAC.”
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