Women's College Basketball
2009 Citizens Bank Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships
#10 Niagara University 71, #7 Rider University 67
Preliminary Round Game
ALBANY, N.Y.?Despite a career-high 20 points from senior Shaunice Parker (Waldorf, Md./West Lake), the Rider University women's basketball team lost a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference preliminary round game against Niagara on Thursday at the Times Union Center. “I am very disappointed right now,” said head coach Lynn Milligan. “This was not the way we had things planned coming up here.”
Trailing by 10 with 4:01 left, Rider went on an 8-0 run, three points each by junior Amanda Sepulveda (Perth Amboy/Hun) and junior Tammy Meyers (Willingboro), cutting Niagara's lead to two with 2:46 left but that was as close as the Broncs could get. Meyers and Sepulveda each scored 16 points with Sepulveda adding nine rebounds and Meyers dishing out a game-high four assists.
“We are never going to stop fighting,” Milligan said. “We've been down before and we will always scrap and claw to come back. The problem today was that we had to come back several times and it takes a lot out of you having to make defensive stop after defensive stop.”
“This was disappointing,” Meyers said. “We made too much progress throughout the season for it to just end like this.”
With the Purple Eagles leading 70-67, Rider (10-20) had a chance to tie with a Sepulveda three-pointer rimming out with eight seconds left and Niagara hit a free throw with four seconds remaining for the final score.
Trailing 58-52 with 4:41 left in the game, Parker hit two free throws to cut the Purple Eagle lead to four before Niagara responded with a 6-0 run, opening up a 64-54 lead with 4:01 left. Parker finished 11 rebounds and her eighth ?double-double' of the season and 17th of her career.
Trailing by 12 with 5:09 left in the opening half, Rider finished the period with a 10-0 run, five points by Sepulveda, cutting the Purple Eagle lead to two and Niagara led 31-29 at the half.
Rider led 3-0 before Niagara (3-27) went on a 12-2 run with the Purple Eagles eventually opening up an 11 point lead, 20-9 seven minutes into the game.
Niagara opened the game making eight of its first 10 shots and shot 48 percent in the first half. “We made some big defensive mistakes today,” Milligan said. “You have to credit Niagara for taking advantage of that.”
“They (Niagara) came out intense and we didn't,” Parker said. “We just didn't play our best. Our coaches prepared us. We just didn't respond when Niagara came out so fast to start the game.”
“Our defensive effort is why we had been so successful this season,” Meyers said. “We just didn't play solid on the defensive end.”
Trailing 22-12, Rider cut the Purple Eagle lead to three with eight minutes to go in the first half, with a 7-0 run, four points by Parker.
Three straight three-pointers by Niagara was the scoring during a 9-0 run as the Purple Eagles opened up a 31-19 lead with 5:09 left in the first half.
The game featured seven lead changes and five ties.
The Purple Eagles out-rebounded Rider 45-39 with the Broncs missing a season-high 50 shots. Niagara missed 30 shots and shot 47 percent compared to Rider's 30 percent from the field.
Rider attempted 34 three-pointers, making eight with Niagara shooting nine for 13 from three-point range. “We focused our planning on their three point shooting,” Milligan said. “Unfortunately, we gave Niagara too many open looks.”
This was the 28th meeting all-time between the two schools with Rider winning 12. The Broncs had defeated Niagara three straight times including twice during the regular season.
“This is a tough way to end the season,” Parker said. “Especially since we beat Niagara twice this season.”
The teams last met in the MAAC Tournament on March 4, 2005 when Niagara posted a 69-46 quarter-final win. The Broncs are now 3-12 all-time in MAAC tournament play, having lost five post-season games in a row.
Parker graduates with 801 rebounds, third highest all-time at Rider and also scored 949 points in her career.
The 10 wins by Rider are the most since the Broncs posted a 14-14 record during the 1999-2000 season and Rider improved from three to seven MAAC wins. Rider returns 10 letter winners for the 2009-10 season.
“The improvement this season was in our play in the conference,” said Parker. “We sent a message throughout the league that it was going to be tough to play Rider and it wasn't going to be two automatic wins anymore. I'm proud of that and that was big step. I hope it will carry over into next season.”
“A couple of weeks from now, we'll look back at the steps that we took this season,” Milligan added. “We took positive steps, some very good steps but it's hard to focus on that right now after such a disappointing loss.”
“We took steps and it is a process,” Meyers added. “We had a lot of positive things but all of us are disappointed that we didn't play well today.”
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