Men's College Basketball
Rider University 74, Monmouth University 54
LAWRENCEVILLE- Senior Justin Robinson (London, England/Blair Academy) scored 22 points and freshman Anthony Myles (Dover, DE/Poly-Tech) added a career-high 15 to lead Rider to victory over cross-town-rival Monmouth Wednesday evening.
"Overall it was a good win," said Rider head coach Tommy Dempsey. "It got a little sloppy at times with all of the fouls (39) and turnovers (35), but it was a matter of two teams playing hard."
Holding a 56-48 lead, Rider (7-5) out-scored Monmouth 10-3, three points each by Robinson and freshman Danny Stewart (Philadelphia, PA/Neumann-Goretti), to take a 66-51 lead with 3:50 left to play. "We responded at the end and played well down the stretch," Dempsey said.
Stewart finished with seven points and a career-high 12 rebounds.
Robinson added seven rebounds, seven assists, no turnovers and four steals. "That's 40 great minutes from Justin," Dempsey said of his senior point guard, who really played just 31 minutes. "You are not going to get a much better game from a point guard than that. Seven assists without a turnover, and seven rebounds is key. When Justin gets rebounds it kick-starts our offense."
"I tried to get my teammates involved," Robinson said of his seven assists.
Rider scored the final eight points of the first half, six points on a pair of three-pointers by freshman Tommy Pereira (Nottingham, England/Canarias Basketball Academy), to take a 39-26 lead at the half. Pereira tied his career-high with nine points. "I felt the end of the first half was critical to our win tonight," Dempsey said.
Trailing 26-12, Monmouth (4-6) went on a 14-5 run, eight points by Mike Myers Keitt, to cut the lead to 31-26 with 2:33 left in the first half. Keitt finished with 13 points. Ed Waite led the Hawks with 14 points.
Rider jumped out to a 23-9 lead, 12 points by Robinson. "I tried to be aggressive from the get-go," Robinson said.
"We made some shots in the first half," Dempsey said. Rider made nine of 15 (60 percent) three-pointers in the first half.
Myles made a career-high four three-pointers. "I guess you can say I was feeling it," Myles said. "I feel the subs, when they come in off the bench, have to produce, and that is what I tried to do tonight. I took the open shots."
Junior Novar Gadson (Philadelphia, Pa./John Bartram) added eight points and four rebounds.
Rider and Monmouth are former Northeast Conference rivals. In the five years Rider was in the NEC (1992-93 through 1996-97) the Broncs were 6-4 against the Hawks during the regular season. Rider and Monmouth played for the NEC Championship in 1994 (Rider won at Rider) and 1996 (Monmouth won at Monmouth).
Rider has now won six of the last seven meetings with Monmouth and is 10-4 against Monmouth since leaving the NEC. The Broncs and Hawks have now met 36 times since the series began in 1974-75, with Rider winning 21, including a 70-63 win during a snow storm on December 19, 2009 in West Long Branch and a 66-54 win the last time the Hawks came to Lawrenceville, December 10, 2008.
Rider takes a week off for exams before traveling back to Philadelphia to take on La Salle December 22.
"We have seven wins, as many as anyone in the MAAC, and I feel we've played the toughest schedule in the MAAC so far," Dempsey said. "I feel good where we are at right now."
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