Men's College Basketball
Rider University 81, University of Maryland Baltimore County 39
LAWRENCEVILLE- Retrievers are a type of gun dog that retrieve game for hunters and are bred for a great willingness to please, learn and obey. The UMBC Retrievers pleased the Bronc fans when they learned to stay, going without a field goal for almost 12 minutes while obeying the near-sell out crowd's command to heel. The Broncs used a 32-2 run in the first half to beat the UMBC Retrievers by 42 points Wednesday night. "Overall it was a good performance by our team," said Rider head coach Tommy Dempsey.
Rider has won 136 of its last 185 home games (.735) but is just 2-2 at home this year. "It was important that, after not having played well at home, to come out and re-establish ourselves in our own gym," Dempsey said.
Junior Brandon Penn (Philadelphia, Pa./Paul Robeson) scored 13 points in just 24 minutes of action to lead Rider to victory. "I just took the shots that the defense gave me," said Penn, who made four of eight shots from the field and four of five foul shots. "I try not to force anything."
The point total was the lowest Rider allowed since allowing 34 points to Bucknell during the 1981-82 season (59-34 Rider win).
Rider (6-4) out-scored UMBC (0-8) 13-5 to start the second half, four points by Penn, to take a 56-20 lead with 14:30 left to play.
Sophomore Dera Nd-Ezuma (Nigeria/Life Center Academy) scored a career-high 12 points, making five of six shots in 16 minutes of action. "Dera got an opportunity and made some nice post moves," Dempsey said.
The Retrievers shot just 28.6 percent (16-56) from the field.
The Broncs shot 58.7 percent (27-46), including 44.4 percent (8-19) from three-point range. The Broncs entered the game as the top shooting team in the MAAC, both overall field goal percentage (.490, 25th best in Division I ) and three-point percentage (.433, ninth best in the nation). Rider leads the MAAC in three-pointers made with 85, 8.5 per game, 25th most in the nation.
Trailing 7-0, Rider went on a 32-2 run, nine points by freshman Tommy Pereira (Nottingham, England/Canarias Basketball Academy), and Rider led 43-15 at the half. "I was excited when Coach called my name," Pereira said in his strong, British accent. "I was up and I was ready."
Pereira finished with a career-high nine points. "I just wanted to get out there and show what I could do," Pereira said, after making three of four 3-point shots. "I like shooting threes."
"Tommy gave us a big lift tonight," Dempsey said. "He has a lot of opportunities ahead of him."
UMBC went over 11 minutes without scoring a basket. "I thought the press really bothered them," Dempsey said. "Defensively we were pretty focused. We really disrupted their rhythm. That got us off to a good start."
Freshman Anthony Myles (Dover, DE/Poly-Tech) added nine points and senior Mike Ringgold (Philadelphia, Pa./Roman Catholic) added seven points and six rebounds in 20 minutes of action.
Senior Justin Robinson (London, England/Blair Academy) added nine points and four assists in 19 minutes. Robinson is third in the MAAC in free throw shooting, third in 3-pointers made, fourth in the MAAC in scoring and fifth in assists.
"We communicated well on defense," Robinson said.
Freshman Danny Stewart (Philadelphia, PA/Neumann-Goretti) grabbed a team-high six rebounds.
The Rider bench out-scored the entire UMBC team 42-39. "We have a lot of guys who can score," Dempsey said. "Nobody took more than eight shots for us so we played unselfishly. It is not about guys' stats, it is about winning."
Rider has won the last five meetings with UMBC and now owns an 8-4 advantage in the series that began in 1987-88.
Rider travels to Philadelphia to take on Drexel (5-1) Saturday afternoon.
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