Women's College Basketball – Preseason WNIT
Towson University 53, Rider University 51

TOWSON, Md.—Despite a career-high 26 points from sophomore Julia Duggan (Marmora/Ocean City), the Rider University women's basketball team lost at Towson on Friday evening in the Preseason WNIT.

“We had a great week of practice,” said head coach Lynn Milligan.  “We prepared hard, we tried to eliminate and fix a lot of things we struggled with last weekend, which I think we did.  We played a really talented team and we stepped up to meet the challenge, but came up a little bit short.”

A Preseason Third Team All-MAAC honoree, Duggan compiled her third career 'double-double', finishing with 11 rebounds and she added three assists, two steals and a block while playing 30 minutes.

“I thought we did a good job particularly on the inside with our post players and our zone,” Milligan said.  “We had nice touch passes to finish around the rim and Julia did a good job finishing around the block. That was all positive.”

Rider had 13 assists on 23 made field goals.

Trailing 51-49, Duggan hit a layup with 1:13 remaining to tie the score, the 10th and final tie of the evening.

Towson hit a jumper with 28 seconds remaining for the game-winner.

Rider (0-2) had two chances to tie the game with the Broncs missing a jumper with 17 seconds left and after a missed Tiger free throw, Rider had a chance to tie the game at the buzzer but missed the jumper with one second remaining.

Rider was a costly 5-12 from the free throw line and for the second game in a row, Rider was not successful on any three-pointers, going 0-12.

“We did step up and make some shots today, but we couldn't hit anything from beyond the arc,” Milligan said.  “There are probably a million reasons, but the bottom line is we didn't make them. We have to get ourselves back in the gym and we don't have a lot of time to feel bad for ourselves. We have to go back, look at the tape tomorrow and play a really tough St. Francis team. Hopefully we'll knock some down tomorrow, but we're getting good open shots.”

Tied 40-40, Rider went on a 4-0 run, two points each by red-shirt sophomore guard Robin Perkins (Willingboro/Trenton Catholic) and Duggan as Rider matched its largest lead of the game, 44-40 with 7:02 left in the second half.

Playing 21 minutes, Perkins finished with eight points and pulled down four rebounds while compiling three blocked shots.

Towson responded with a 5-0 run to take a 45-44 lead with 6:11 left, one of 17 lead changes in the contest.

Trailing 35-32, Rider went on a 4-0 run, three points by Duggan as the Broncs went back into the lead 36-35 with 10:44 remaining.

Each team had 43 rebounds.

Towson out-shot Rider 38 percent (22-58) to 35 percent (23-66).  The Tigers made five from three-point range.

The game was tied for 11:01 and Towson only led for 11:35, compared to 17:11 time in the lead for the Broncs.

Rider scored the first four points of the game, two each by Duggan and Perkins before Towson (1-1) responded with a 7-2 run to take a 7-6 lead 4:18 into the contest.

Trailing 14-12, Rider used an 8-2 spurt, seven of the eight points by Duggan as the Broncs forged ahead 20-16 with 7:50 left in the opening half.

Rider led 26-25 at intermission, behind 15 points from Duggan.

Former rivals in the East Coast Conference, Rider and Towson met for the 24th time with the Tigers improving to 16-8 in the series.  The teams last met on December 2, 2007 when the Tigers won 74-68 in Lawrenceville.

The Broncs will face St. Francis Brooklyn on Saturday at 4pm in their final game of the Preseason WNIT, hosted by Towson.  The Terriers lost to North Dakota on Friday 70-63.

“St. Francis is a great team,” Milligan added about the Terriers who had a program record 19 wins a year ago.  “They run a lot of motion and a lot of movement in their offense. We are going to have to be ready to go.”

Rider opens the home portion of the schedule on Tuesday against Lafayette at 7pm in Alumni Gymnasium.

-RU-