Men's College Basketball

Rider University 69, Marist College 59

POUGHKEEPSIE, NY— The comedian Redd Foxx would grab his heart when overly excited and call out to his late wife, “I'm coming to join you Elizabeth! This is the big one.” in the television show Sanford and Son.

The Marist Red Foxes grabbed the lead with 10 minutes left in the game, but when the game got exciting it was the Rider Broncs who won the big one.

Junior Zedric Sadler (Detroit, Mich./Cody) compiled 15 points, five steals and four rebounds off the bench to lead Rider to a fourth straight victory, a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference win at Marist Friday night.

Sadler has 32 points in his last two games.

“Good effort by our guys and give Marist credit,” said Rider head coach Kevin Baggett. “Those guys fight. We knew it would be a tough battle.”

The last time Rider (8-6, 2-1 MAAC) won four straight was during the 2012-13 season when the Broncs won the final five games of the regular season.  Rider also won five in a row in January of 2013.

The loss was the eighth straight for Marist. “We knew they would be hungry since they are struggling,” Baggett said of the Red Foxes.

Trailing 48-45, Rider out-scored Marist 16-3, seven points by graduate student Anthony D'Orazio (Camden, NJ/Camden Catholic), to take a 61-51 lead with 3:38 left to play. “Anthony got into a little foul trouble but once he got back in he really stepped up,” Baggett said.

D'Orazio added four rebounds, two assists and two steals in 19 minutes of work.

Marist (1-12, 0-3 MAAC) made three unanswered three-pointers, two by Manny Thomas, to take a 27-25 lead, and the score was tied at 29-29 at the half.

Marist was led by Chavaughn Lewis, who compiled 20 points and six rebounds. “We knew Lewis is one of the better scorers in the MAAC,” Baggett said.  “The fact that he got those 20 points on 19 shots, we'll take that.”

Rider was playing without senior center Matt Lopez (Erial, NJ/Washington Twp.), who compiled a 'double-double' in each of the last two games but was sidelined Friday with an illness. In his place, senior Junior Fortunat (Montreal, Quebec/Roman Catholic) made his first start of the year and compiled 10 points in 21 minutes.

“The coaches prepared us for tonight and we were ready,” said Fortunat. 

Also for Rider, sophomore Xavier Lundy (Paulsboro, NJ/Paulsboro) added 13 points and a career-high eight rebounds. “Coach Baggett told us we had to be more aggressive without Matt in the line-up,” Lundy said, “so that is what we tried to do.”

“We're injured and sick and I thought 'X' (Lundy) and Junior stepped up and did a good job tonight,” Baggett said.”That is one thing we've talked about all year, our depth.”

Rider got 24 points from its bench. “Our depth really showed up tonight,” Baggett said.

Rider was 12 of 18 from the foul line.  “We worked the ball inside and got to the foul line,” Baggett said.

Rider has won 13 of the last 15 meetings with Marist. The two teams have now met 51 times since the series began in 1980-81, with Rider winning 28, including 19 of the last 27.

Rider plays its third straight road game on Monday, January 5, an ESPN3 game at Fairfield. The Broncs will be looking for a fifth straight win.  Rider has won six of the last seven games.  “We feel good about where we are right now,” Lundy said.  “This is giving us momentum at the right time, in the conference schedule.”

-ru-