Women's College Basketball
Lafayette College 66, Rider University 48

LAWRENCEVILLE—The Rider University women's basketball team lost the 2014-15 home opener to Lafayette College on Tuesday evening in Alumni Gymnasium.

“This obviously wasn't the result we wanted, especially in the home opener,” said head coach Lynn Milligan.  “We are struggling scoring right now.  Our defense needs to hold strong until the offense catches up.”

For Rider (0-4), sophomore Julia Duggan (Marmora/Ocean City) had 13 points and eight rebounds, four on the offensive glass while playing 28 minutes.

“One way to help the offense is to score easier baskets,” Milligan said.  “That starts with solid defense and converting offensive rebounds like Julia was able to do tonight.”

Tied 4-4, Lafayette (3-1), went on an 8-0 run, three points each by Maddie Peabody and Ashley Lutz as the Leopards led 12-4 with 15:20 left in the opening half. 

Peabody led four Leopards in double-digits with 16 points with Lutz adding five points and five rebounds.

“We are playing hard, we are just not scoring points,” Milligan added.  “We need to balance out the defense and the offense much better.  We are getting looks but we just aren't knocking them down.”

The Leopards were 8-19 from three-point range, compared to 1 for 11 for Rider for a 24-3 advantage from long range and Lafayette had 16 assists on 22 made field goals.

“Giving up six three-pointers in the opening half really hurt us,” Milligan said.

After a layup by Duggan cut the Leopard lead to 18-12 at the 10:50 mark of the opening period, another 8-0 run, six points by Peabody extended Lafayette's lead to 26-12 with 8:53 left in the half.

“It's frustrating not making shots,” Duggan said.  “We are in the gym all the time shooting.  They just need to start falling.  It's something we need to work through.”

Lafayette led 39-22 at intermission.

Rider cut the deficit to 16 on a three-pointer by red-shirt sophomore Robin Perkins (41-25) with 19:31 left in the game before Lafayette responded, pushing its lead to as high as 27 with 3:19 left in the contest.

Perkins (Willingboro/Trenton Catholic) finished with seven points on three of 14 shooting.

Rider was out-shot 38 percent (22-58) to 31 percent (17-55) in the game and the Leopards held a 46-38 advantage on the glass.

Lafayette went 14-18 (78 percent) from the free throw line, compared to 13-22 (59 percent) for Rider.

Former rivals in the East Coast Conference (ECC), this was the 32nd meeting between the teams with Lafayette winning for the 22nd time.  The teams met in the 2013-14 season opener in Easton, Pennsylvania with the Leopards pulling out a 67-62 victory.

Rider is now 4-4 in its last eight home openers.

Rider travels to Virginia to face Old Dominion University on Sunday.

“The schedule doesn't get any easier,” Milligan said.  “We have a couple road games then we begin MAAC play against Iona and Marist.  This is one of the toughest weeks of the season coming up, this is a huge challenge.”

-RU-