Women's College Basketball
Rider University 68, Canisius College 58
LAWRENCEVILLE--Sophomore Shereen Lightbourne (Elmsford, N.Y./Alexander Hamilton) scored 16 points to lead Rider to a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference victory over Canisius Monday night. The win snapped an 18-game losing streak dating back to last season.
"It was one of those games where everyone needed to do something for us to win," said head coach Lynn Milligan. "This wasn't one person breaking out for a 20 point night. This was a team effort from beginning to end and that is how we are going to win because that is how we are built. I am hoping that this is going to give us a little of that confidence boost to understand that that is how we have to win."
"It is very important for us to stay excited for the win, but to not stay complacent for the one win that we have," Lightbourne said. "We have to continue to work hard in practice, stick together and stay together like we did in this game for 40 minutes and I have no doubt that we will continue winning."
Rider (1-14, 1-3 MAAC) out-scored Canisius (5-10, 1-3 MAAC) 15-5 to start the second half, seven points by Lightbourne and five points by sophomore Dior Brown (Upper Darby, Pa./Upper Darby), to take a 49-29 lead with 7:00 left in the game.
D. Brown finished with nine points, five rebounds and three assists.
Canisius came back to cut the lead to 59-53 with 5:15 left and 64-58 with 46 seconds left, but that was as close as the Golden Griffins could get.
"We got aggressive in the second half, but everything has to go perfect in those situations to complete a comeback," said Canisius head coach Terry Zeh.
"The good thing about tonight is that I didn't have to tell them a lot," said Milligan. "They told each other. They really played well together. Those timeouts that I called were to settle us down, but they settled each other down. There was no doubt in their eyes."
Junior Ali Heller (Boca Raton, Fla./St. Andrews) made four of four foul shots in the final 27 seconds to seal the victory. Heller finished with 14 points, tying her career high, making two of four three-point field goals. Heller leads the nation in three-point field goal percentage (.516).
"We had to get Ali the ball at the end of the game obviously," Milligan said. "Some of our younger players were a little tight on the foul line. She is a junior and a great shooter and is confident on the free throw line. She did her job which is to make free throws."
"I just have confidence I need to shoot the three or get to the foul line," Heller said. "I know I can make shots and I also know that if I don't have the shot I can feed off the defense and give the ball to my teammates and I have confidence in them that they will knock the shot down too."
On a night that Rider missed 16 of 34 foul shots, Heller was a clutch six for six from the charity stripe.
"I think tonight we finally put everything together," Heller added. "Every little piece came together. If we had a lull we came up and came right back instead of putting our heads down and letting the other team come at us. We have to take this win and roll with it, get another one, and another one. We needed to get our confidence up and tonight was the start."
Holding a 17-15 lead, Rider out-scored Canisius 17-9 over the final 8:10 of the first half, five points by Lightbourne, to take a 34-24 lead at the half.
It marked just the third time this season that Rider led at half time but it was the second game in a row that the Broncs have led at intermission (at Siena on January 8).
Sophomore Carleigh Brown (Philadelphia, Pa./Nazareth) added nine points and six rebounds, making all three of her field goal attempts and all three of her foul shots.
Sophomore Caitlin Bopp (Baltimore, Md./Inst. of Notre Dame) added nine points and nine rebounds
For Canisius, Ashley Durham compiled 13 points and five rebounds, and Jamie Ruttle added 10 points. Canisius extended its NCAA record of consecutive games with a three-pointer to 500 games on a three-pointer by Ruttle on the team's first offensive possession.
The Broncs out-rebounded Canisius 41-33.
Rider posted a season high in points (68), field goal percentage (.489), free throw attempts (34), assists (14) and the .311 that Canisius shot from the field was a season low against a Bronc defense that entered play surrendering 70.8 points per game.
"It is no secret that when you are losing the way we were losing, it is tough on the players," Milligan added. "We try to do our best job to pick them up every day and in the same breath demand the expectations that we want from this group. I think there is probably a little sense of relief in the locker room. I hope there is a sense of confidence in how we won the game tonight and that is our formula for success. It has got to be a 40 minute effort and when there is a lull, we have to respond."
This was the 30th meeting between Rider and Canisius with the Broncs recording their seventh win in the series. Canisius had won two in a row and 19 of 20 over the Broncs entering play. This is the first time in 11 years that Rider has defeated Canisius in Lawrenceville.
Rider has a 12 noon 'Lunch with Lynn' game Thursday, hosting Manhattan in a MAAC contest on NCAA Kid's Day. The Jaspers won at Saint Peter's 58-44 Monday night, improving to 2-2 in conference play.
"We are going to feel good about this until tomorrow at noon," Milligan said. "Then we are going to get to work on Manhattan because they are a very good ball club, a veteran group. They play a 1-3-1 zone for 40 minutes and that is something that you don't see all the time so we have to prepare very hard."
-ru-
