Men's College Basketball
Rider University 88, Manhattan College 59
RIVERDALE, NY-The Broncs traveled to the Bronx Thursday night and won a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game over Manhattan. If there was ever a 'must win' game in the first week of December, this was it. "I told the guys this was the first 'must win' game of the season," said Rider head coach Tommy Dempsey. "We knew we needed to win this game."
The win snapped a two-game losing streak for Rider while the loss was the fifth in a row for Manhattan. "Overall it was a very good performance," Dempsey said.
For Rider, junior Brandon Penn (Philadelphia, Pa./Paul Robeson) scored a career-high 26 points, 18 in the first half, and tied his career high with nine rebounds. "Brandon is a great offensive player," Dempsey said. "I was more pleased that he grabbed nine rebounds. He played at both ends tonight."
"I came out feeling pretty good," said Penn. "Early in the game I got some easy shots and that got me going. That helped me knock down the long ball."
Penn made a career-high five of eight three-pointers.
The Broncs shot 61.1 percent from the field (33-54), including 52.6 percent from three-point range (10-19). "We certainly made some shots," Dempsey said. "That makes life a lot easier, but we generated a lot of offense with our defense."
Rider (5-3, 1-1 MAAC) out-scored Manhattan (2-5, 0-1 MAAC) 15-3 to start the second half, six points by senior Justin Robinson (London, England/Blair Academy), to take a 60-32 lead. Robinson finished with 11 points.
Manhattan went on a 15-1 run, nine points by George Beamon, to cut the lead to 61-47, but that was as close as the Jaspers could get. Beamon finished with 16 points and Robert Martina added 14. "They made a run in the second half but we kept the press on," Dempsey said. "They hit a bit of a dry spell, turned the ball over, and we were able to get it back up to where it finished up."
Junior Novar Gadson (Philadelphia, Pa./John Bartram) added 13 points and a career-high seven assists. "It was great to see Novar get all of those assists when he got a start tonight," Dempsey said. "He's a very skilled player and he's tough to guard." Gadson made five of seven shots from the field. "He took good shots and passed the ball well."
As a team, Rider had 23 assists, the most since the 2006-07 season when Rider had 25 against Canisius. "We passed the ball so well," Dempsey said. 'I felt that was a key."
With the score tied at 27, Rider went on a 12-0 run, six points by senior Mike Ringgold (Philadelphia, Pa./Roman Catholic), to take a 39-27 lead, and Rider led 45-29 at the half on 18 points by Penn. Ringgold finished with 14 points.
"If we play hard we'll be in every game," Ringgold said. "It might not be a blowout but we'll be in it. We need to defend."
Freshman Anthony Myles (Dover, DE/Poly-Tech) added 11 points off the bench.
Manhattan's only lead of the game was 25-24 with 9:15 left in the first half.
Rider jumped out to an 11-4 lead, seven points by Penn, and the Broncs led 20-9 six minutes into the game.
Rider caused 17 Manhattan turnovers with a press defense. "We want to become more of a pressing team," Dempsey said. "We've played a lot of games so far and you can't press every night when you play this many games."
The Broncs and Jaspers have now met 36 times since the series began in 1929-30, with Rider winning 19. Since Rider joined the MAAC, the Broncs are 18-11 against the Jaspers, including 1-1 in post-season. Rider has won seven of the last eight meetings with Manhattan, including both last year.
The Broncs head west to take on third ranked Pittsburgh (8-0) Saturday afternoon.
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