Men's College Basketball
Rider University 61, Iona College 59
NEW ROCHELLE, NY- Revenge is a meal best served cold. With all of the snow that fell recently, it was certainly cold enough Thursday night for Rider to avenge an overtime loss to the Gales suffered two weeks ago.
"It was just a gutsy performance from our players tonight," said Rider head coach Tommy Dempsey. "We played so hard and came away with a hard-fought road win."
Rider is now 5-0 in the MAAC on the road and 10-3 overall away from Alumni Gym. "That's why we are in the race," Dempsey said.
Senior Justin Robinson (London, England/Blair Academy) scored 19 points, 18 in the second half, to lead Rider to a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference win at Iona Thursday. "At half time I told Justin that he is an all-league player and if you are one you have to play like it. To go out there and make plays and he did."
"At halftime Coach told me to come out and to be aggressive, to attack," Robinson said. "I tried to get more involved in the offense in the second half."
Robinson made a field goal with 15 seconds left to give Rider a 59-55 lead. "He made a big clutch shot at the end," Dempsey said, "as he has many times in his career."
Sophomore Jonathon Thompson (Orlando, Fla./Jones) made two foul shots with 8.3 seconds left, his only points of the game, to give Rider (15-7, 7-3 MAAC) a 61-58 lead.
The victory was Rider's third in a row. The Broncs have now won nine of their last 11 games. "We're trying to keep it rolling," Robinson said. "We need to stay consistent defensively."
After Thompson's foul shots, Rider fouled to prevent a three-point Iona (13-8, 8-2 MAAC) field goal. Iona junior guard Scott Machado made the first foul shot and missed the second shot on purpose. Iona junior forward Mike Glover got the offensive rebound but missed the shot at the buzzer..
"They are a good three-point shooting team," Dempsey said of Iona, who made seven of 28 Thursday, "and they make clutch three-pointers, so I thought it was in our best interest to foul and take our chances. Scott did a good job of hitting the rim and getting the rebound to go to Glover's side. Glover's last shot was indicative of the entire game. He had to muscle his way through Ringgold and Stewart and we showed up and protected the basket and got the win."
Glover leads the nation in shooting percentage and is the leading scorer in the MAAC (19.7) and the second leading rebounder (10.8) but finished with just six points and a game-high 13 rebounds.
Iona came into the game as the top offense in the league. "To hold a team that averages 80 points per game to just 59," Dempsey said, "was just great."
Also for Rider, junior Novar Gadson (Philadelphia, Pa./John Bartram) added 15 points and nine rebounds. Gadson has compiled 168 points and 71 rebounds in his last 10 games. Gadson now has 992 career points.
Freshman Danny Stewart (Philadelphia, PA/Neumann-Goretti) added 13 points and 11 rebounds, but more importantly, did a terrific job guarding Glover. "Danny was unbelievable on defense," Dempsey said. "He played so hard."
Senior Mike Ringgold (Philadelphia, Pa./Roman Catholic) made six of eight foul shots and finished with 10 points. "Mike made some big free throws," Dempsey said. "One of the things with Mike's free throws is confidence-related. Once his first few went in I think he felt he could make them. He's a real competitor."
Rider leads the MAAC in three-pointers made and three-point percentage, but was just two of 13 Thursday night. "We can't depend on our offense to bail us out every night," Dempsey said. "We grinded it out, we out-rebounded them (44-38) and we played defense tonight."
Rider out-scored Iona 15-5 to start the second half, 11 points by Robinson, to take a 38-34 lead with 14:41 remaining. It was Rider's first lead since 9-8.
Trailing 27-18, Rider out-scored Iona 5-2 over the final 4:22 of the first half, and Iona led 29-23 at half time.
Kyle Smyth led Iona with 17 points, while Jermel Jenkins added 15. Machado added 12 points and seven rebounds.
Trailing 9-8, Iona went on a 13-3 run, nine points by Smyth, to take a 21-12 lead with 6:50 left in the first half.
Rider and Iona have now met 46 times since the series began in 1949-50, with Rider winning 22. Rider defeated Iona five straight times before losing the last three meetings.
Rider travels to Saint Peter's for a Saturday afternoon game, the third road game of the week. "This is a brutal week," Dempsey said. "If you want to be a championship team you have to win in tough spots."
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