Men's College Basketball Sears BracketBuster
University at Albany 70, Rider University 61
ALBANY, NY-Despite 18 points from senior Jeff Jones (Chester, PA/Monsignor Bonner) the Broncs lost their Sears BracketBuster game to UAlbany Saturday night. "Give Albany credit, they played great," said Rider head coach Tommy Dempsey.
Holding a 54-46 lead, Albany (17-13, 8-7 America East) out-scored Rider 8-0, five points by guard Mike Black, to take a 62-46 lead with 4:22 left. Black finished with 23 points.
Trailing 52-35, Rider (11-18, 8-8 MAAC) went on an 11-2 run, four points each from junior Jonathon Thompson (Orlando, Fla./Jones) and freshman Junior Fortunat (Quebec, Canada/Roman Catholic), to cut the Albany lead to 54-46 with 10:12 left to play.
Thompson finished with 10 points, four assists and four rebounds, while Fortunate finished with six points, three rebounds and a pair of blocks.
Albany out-scored Rider 13-5 to start the second half, six points by guard Jacob Iati, to take a 52-35 lead with 14:30 remaining. Iati finished with 23 points, making six three-pointers.
"Their backcourt played terrific," Dempsey said of Iati and Black. "both teams were missing some players, and in those cases other players get opportunities. Iati took advantage of his opportunity tonight."
Trailing 26-24, Albany out-scored Rider 15-4 over the final 4:34 of the first half to take a 39-30 lead at halftime.
Trailing 17-9, Albany out-scored Rider 15-3, seven points by Black, to take a 24-20 lead with 8:00 left in the first half.
The Broncs jumped out to a 17-9 lead, eight points by sophomore Anthony Myles (Dover, DE/Poly-Tech). "We got off to a really good start," Dempsey said. "Their zone slowed us up for a while."
Myles played just 10 minutes before jamming his hand in the first half and did not return.
"The injury to Myles early in the game really was a problem," Dempsey said. "That injury along with not having Brandon really made us shorthanded."
The Broncs were playing without senior Brandon Penn (Philadelphia, Pa./Paul Robeson), who suffered a slight knee injury in practice. Penn is expected to return to play next weekend for Rider's final two regular season games.
Senior Novar Gadson (Philadelphia, Pa./John Bartram) added 11 points, four assists and four rebounds.
Rider took just five foul shots all night, making four, while Albany was 13 of 16 from the foul line.
Albany finished fourth in the America East standings last season and is picked to finish fourth this year.
The only other time these two teams met was when Rider defeated Albany State 52-42 in the 1958 NAIA District 31 Regional.
This was Rider's seventh BracketBuster game. The Broncs are 3-3 in BracketBuster games, having defeated Delaware (2011), UMBC (2009) and Cal State Northridge (2008) while losing to Hofstra (2010), Murray State (2007) and Northeastern (2006).
Rider returns to MAAC action Friday, hosting second place Loyola at 7pm on ESPN2. "We're not in a good place right now," said Dempsey, after the Broncs lost their third straight game. "We have to regroup and find that inter-strength to preserver."
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