Men's College Basketball

Providence College 73, Rider University 65

PROVIDENCE, RI— Providence is defined as a manifestation of divine care or direction. Facing 14th ranked Providence College, the Rider Broncs could have used some divine intervention Saturday night.

Providence (11-1), ranked 14th in the nation, scored the first 15 points of the game and defeated Rider by eight points Saturday evening.

“It is hard to grind it out against an athletic team like Providence,” said Rider head coach Kevin Baggett, “but for the most part we did. We competed and for the most part I think we did a good job.  There are no moral victories but we are continuing to get better.”

The win was the fifth in a row for Providence.

Trailing 65-52, Rider (2-9) went on a 12-4 run, five points by junior Jimmie Taylor (Branford, Fla./Suwannee), to cut the lead to 69-64 with 1:59 remaining, but that was as close as the Broncs could get. Taylor finished with 22 points and six rebounds. “I'm happy for Jimmie, he's playing well,” Baggett said.

The Broncs never led.  Rider cut the lead to 33-32 on a three-pointer by junior Xavier Lundy (Paulsboro, NJ/Paulsboro) to start the second half. “X made some shots to start the second half,” Baggett said.  Lundy finished with 14 points, all in the second half, making four three-pointers.

Rider used a 15-5 run, seven points by Taylor and six points by graduate student Teddy Okereafor (London, England/VCU), to cut the lead to 31-27 with 2:20 left in the half and Rider trailed 33-29 at the half. Okereafor finished with 12 points, eight rebounds and four assists in 35 minutes of work.

Providence was led by Ben Bentil, who finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds. Bentil scored nine points when PC jumped out to a 15-0 lead and had 14 in the first half.  “I'm not sure why we started off so sluggish,” Baggett said of the 15-0 deficit.  “Once we figured out 'hey, we can do this' we came around. Teddy got us going in the first half.”

For Rider, junior Kahlil Thomas (Parkway, Fla./Blanche Ely) compiled a 'double-double' with 12 points and 10 rebounds, along with two blocks.

Providence out-rebounded Rider 47-38.  “We gave them too many second chances,” Baggett said.

Providence began the season 6-0 before losing to #3 Michigan in the title game of the Wooden Legacy Tournament in California.

The Broncs were playing without 6'9” sophomore Kenny Grant (East Orange, NJ/Hyde), who injured his knee in practice Friday.

Rider will now travel to Baltimore to take on Morgan State December 23. “I like where we are heading right now, we are showing progress,” Baggett said. The Broncs return to Alumni Gymnasium December 30 to host Hartford in the final non-conference game of the season.

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