Women's College Basketball
Canisius College 66, Rider University 63
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Game
BUFFALO, N.Y.—Needing a win to clinch an opening round bye in the 2014 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship tournament, the Rider University women's basketball team had a half court three-pointer at the buzzer fall short as the Broncs lost at Canisius College 66-63 on Sunday afternoon.
“It was a great ending and a great ball game,” said head coach Lynn Milligan. “I'm really happy with the way we played. Unfortunately, we didn't come out on top. This team is undermanned, undersized and we still battled and that's all you can ask.
Rider played today without three would be starters from the original 2013-14 plans who are out with season-ending injuries, the most recent, second leading scorer, sophomore Mikal Johnson (Manassas, Va./Osbourn) who went down two games ago.
“The players are stepping up and working hard as figure out our revised rotation,” Milligan said. “That's all I can ask from them.”
Canisius won the tie-breaker over Rider by virtue of the season series sweep with the Golden Griffins also defeating the Broncs in Lawrenceville, 76-72 on January 12.
“We are disappointed where we finished,” said Milligan who saw her squad in fifth place by two games with two games remaining before losing both. “But the MAAC tournament is coming up and we have to be ready.”
Rider will be the sixth seed and will play #11 Saint Peter's University on Thursday, March 6 at 1:30pm in Springfield, Massachusetts with the winner facing #3 Fairfield University on Friday at 9:30pm.
For Rider (13-16, 9-11 MAAC), MAAC Player of the Year candidate, senior MyNeshia McKenzie (Springfield, Pa./Springfield (Delco)) had her 17th 'double-double' of the season and 43rd of her career, finishing with 26 points and 11 rebounds in 39 minutes of play.
Tied 49-49, Canisius went on a 9-2 run as the Golden Griffs took a 58-51 lead with 4:38 remaining.
Trailing 64-55, Rider cut the Golden Griff lead to three (64-61) with a 6-0 run, including a steal and layup from graduate student Shereen Lightbourne (Elmsford, N.Y./Alexander Hamilton) but Canisius made two of three free throws in the final 17 seconds to hold off the comeback attempt.
“We have a never quit attitude and you saw that today,” Milligan added. “You are down two possessions with fewer than 20 seconds left and you have a chance for a tying shot, we don't give up until the final buzzer sounds. That's who we are and our goal is to play a complete 40 minutes.”
Lightbourne finished with nine points in 27 minutes of play.
“Shereen did a great job for us today,” Milligan added. “We battled and played hard. We have to grab something out of this game and move on.”
Trailing 32-28 at the half, Rider opened the second period by scoring 10 of the first 15 points, five points by McKenzie as Rider went into the lead 38-37 with 16:45 left in the game.
With Rider trailing 39-38, the Broncs used a 5-0 run, three points by Lightbourne to take their largest lead of the contest, 43-39 with 15:03 left.
The teams then battled back and forth with the game tied at 43-43, 45-45 and 49-49 before the final Golden Griff run.
The game featured five ties and 10 lead changes.
Canisius opened on a 4-0 run before junior Lashay Banks (Philadelphia, Pa./Prep Charter) hit a jumper 3:33 into the contest, sparking a 5-0 Rider run as the Broncs went ahead by one with
15:47 left in the opening half.
Trailing 6-5, Banks hit a three-pointer to give Rider an 8-6 lead. Banks finished with five points, all in the first five minutes of the game.
Trailing 16-15, Canisius went on a 6-0 run, taking a 21-16 lead with exactly 8:00 left in the opening half.
Rider cut the deficit to 23-22 at the 4:43 mark of the opening half when freshman Stephanie Mason (Jackson/Jackson Memorial) hit the second of two three-pointers. Mason finished with those six points in eight minutes off the bench.
Canisius responded by scoring six of the next seven points to take a 29-23 lead with 1:48 to go before intermission and the Golden Griffins led by four (32-28) at the break.
Rider was out-rebounded 35-30 and the Golden Griffins out-shot the Broncs 47 percent (25-53) to 41 percent (23-56). The Broncs made six three-pointers in the contest.
“We kept ourselves in the game with some good transition play,” Milligan said. “That's the kind of effort and energy that we need to bring to Springfield this coming week.”
Canisius has defeated Rider seven times in a row and leads the all-time series 30-7.
The official pairings for the conference tournament will be announced by the league office on Sunday evening. Rider swept Saint Peter's this season, 68-40 in Lawrenceville on January 9 and 56-55 on January 18 in Jersey City.
“Saint Peter's is going to be ready to play,” Milligan said. “We have a couple of days to get ready and we know what we are up against.”
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