Men's College Basketball
Liberty University 79, Rider University 64
LYNCHBURG, VA?The Rider basketball season came to and end Tuesday at Liberty in the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament. “I don't question our effort,” said Rider head coach Tommy Dempsey. “I thought we played extremely hard.”
Liberty (23-11) of the Big South Conference, was led by senior guard Anthony Smith, who compiled 25 points, and freshman Seth Curry, brother of Davidson All-American guard Stephen and son of former NBA three-point shooter Dell, who added 19 points.
For Rider (19-13), freshman Novar Gadson (Philadelphia, Pa./John Bartram) scored a career-high 24 points. Gadson, who sprained his ankle in practice after the MAAC tournament, scored nine points in 11 minutes off the bench in the first half.
Liberty jumped out to a 13-3 lead in the first five minutes, seven points by Curry. Holding a 21-10 lead, Liberty out-scored Rider 12-2, eight points by Smith, to take a 33-13 lead, and the Flames led 47-27 at the half.
Liberty shot 69 percent from the field (18-26) in the first half, compared to Rider's 31 percent (10-32). “We ran into a bit of a buzz saw in the first half,” Dempsey said. “They shot 70 percent. I thought we were competing hard but it seemed everything they threw up went in.”
Speaking of throwing up, Rider junior Ryan Thompson (Mt. Laurel, N.J./Lenape) finished with seven points, nine rebounds and four assists despite suffering from a stomach virus the last few days that caused him to vomit during walk-through on Tuesday after not being able to practice Saturday, Sunday or Monday. “I'm not here to make excuses for us or for Ryan, but he didn't practice the last few days and was sick during the walk-through today, so he was struggling tonight but he gave us everything he had. He tried to gut it out but certainly it was not a ?Ryan Thompson' performance.”
The Broncs out-scored Liberty 37-32 in the second half and out-rebounded the Flames 26-20 in the final 20 minutes. “I thought we showed our character in the second half,” Dempsey said. “We came out and competed hard to try to make a game out of it. They only shot 30 percent in the second half (10-28) because we never quit. We played defense and rebounded, we just didn't have enough tonight.”
Liberty lost to the second seed, VMI in the semifinals of the Big South Tournament. Liberty spent 11 weeks ranked in CollegeInsider.com's Mid-Major Top 25 and received votes an additional five weeks during the season. Liberty is 15-2 at home this year.
The Broncs won five in a row and 10 of 13 before losing in double overtime in the semifinals to the second seed, 26-game winner Niagara, who is now playing in the NIT.
Senior Harris Mansell (Cheltenham, Pa./Cheltenham) graduates with 1,317 career points, 15th highest ever at Rider. “Harris has been great for our program and won a lot of games,” Dempsey said.
Under Dempsey, Rider win 58 games over the last three seasons, tied for the most ever at Rider over a three-year period.
Thompson now has 1,313 career points, 16th highest ever.
Sophomore Patrick Mansell (Cheltenham, Pa./Cheltenham) came in off the bench to score nine points.
Sophomore Mike Ringgold (Philadelphia, Pa./Roman Catholic) added 10 points and eight rebounds and sophomore Justin Robinson (London, England/Blair Academy) added nine points.
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