Men's College Basketball
Hofstra University 58, Rider University 48
LAWRENCEVILLE-In a rematch of last year's ESPN BracketBuster overtime game, the Rider Broncs lost to Hofstra Monday evening. "It was a long night," said Rider head coach Tommy Dempsey. "We looked flat and played poorly."
For Hofstra (3-3) senior forward Charles Jenkins scored 19 points and junior guard Dwan McMillian added 10.
A two-time Haggerty Award winner (MET Player of the Year), Jenkins had all but five of his points in the second half. "I calmed down in the second half," Jenkins said. "I was too excited in the first half."
For Rider (4-3) senior Justin Robinson (London, England/Blair Academy) scored 17 points and senior Mike Ringgold (Philadelphia, Pa./Roman Catholic) added 17 and 10 rebounds.
With the score tied at 39-39, Hofstra out-scored Rider 13-2, six points by Shemiye McLendon, to take a 52-41 lead with 5:23 left to play. McLendon finished with eight points.
Trailing 33-25 early in the second half, Rider out-scored Hofstra 14-6, six points by Ringgold, to tie the score at 39-39 mid-way through the second half.
Rider out-scored Hofstra 12-4 over the final 4:15 of the first half, nine points by Robinson, to cut the lead to 28-20 at the half.
Hofstra went on a 22-4 run, eight points by McMillian, to take a 24-8 lead with 4:50 left in the first half. "Defense keyed our big first half run," said Hofstra head coach Mo Cassara.
Rider shot 33.9 percent from the field (20-59), made just six of 28 three-point field goal attempts, and just two of four foul shots. "I'm proud of the way we played defense against a good Rider team," Cassara said. "This is a tough place to play."
"We took way too many threes," Dempsey said. "You don't get to the foul line shooting that many threes."
Hofstra was 10-14 from the foul line.
Rider shot just 28.6 percent (8-28) from the field in the first half, including 18.8 percent (3-16) from three-point range, and committed 11 turnovers. "We had a lot of turnovers early," Dempsey said. "We didn't play hard enough."
"We were inconsistent all night," Robinson said.
"We committed too many turnovers in the first half,' Ringgold said.
Hofstra was almost as bad in the first half, shooting 36.7 percent from the field (11-30), including 1-6 from three-pointers.
Junior Novar Gadson (Philadelphia, Pa./John Bartram) added six points and seven rebounds for Rider.
Rider and Hofstra are former East Coast Conference rivals (1975-1992). Hofstra won the last meeting, 92-89 in overtime during last season's BracketBuster Weekend. Before that the two teams had not met since the 1991-92 season. Rider and Hofstra have now met 37 times since the series began in 1942-43, with Rider winning 17. Hofstra traveled to Lawrenceville and won in overtime, 68-65 on February 15, 1992, the last time these two teams played before last year.
The game was televised on The Comcast Network. Rider was 4-2 on television last year and is now 2-2 on television this year. The Broncs won twice on MAAC TV in 2008-09 and Rider was 7-3 on national television in 2007-08.
Rider returns to MAAC action Thursday, taking on the Jaspers at Manhattan. Rider won by one point at Manhattan last year and beat the Jaspers by three points in Lawrenceville in the last meeting.
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