Women's College Basketball
Rider University 52, Canisius College 51
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Game

LAWRENCEVILLE—It was a Super Sunday for the Rider University women's basketball team.

Junior Manon Pellet (Marseille, France) hit two free throws with 0.3 seconds remaining in the game, her only two points of the contest, leading Rider to a come from behind 52-51 win over Canisius College on Sunday afternoon in Alumni Gymnasium.

“I thought our players did a good job recognizing the time and score,” said head coach Lynn Milligan.  “We work on situations all the time knowing that we didn't need a three and we didn't need to chuck a shot.  4.5 seconds was a lot of time.  We made two passes, two moves, and we were able to get Manon to the line.”

“You just have to make the first one, and you'll feel better for the second one,” Pellet said.  “I'm glad it worked out. It's harder with the stress, but I'm so glad I made that.”

Rider has won four of its last five games with the only loss a three-point decision at Fairfield.

Trailing 33-27, Rider (7-14, 4-7 MAAC) took a 47-41 lead with 3:38 left in the second half on the strength of a 20-8 run, six points by senior Lashay Banks (Philadelphia, Pa./Prep Charter).  Contributing 23 minutes off the bench, Banks had a game-high 18 points and added nine rebounds to go along with two steals and an assist.

“Lashay was great coming in off the bench again,” Milligan said.  “She gave us a spark when we were playing great defensively early, but we weren't clicking offensively yet and here she comes in just grabbing rebounds and finishing putbacks, it was really great for her.”

“Today felt really good,” said Banks who is averaging 10.4 points and 6.6 rebounds in the last five games.  “From the beginning I felt as a team we were really together.  That helped us on defense.  On offense we haven't flowed as well, but defense really helped us to get going and did so again today.”

Trailing 25-23, Canisius (8-13, 6-6 MAAC) opened the second half on an 8-0 run and led 31-25, holding Rider scoreless until a Banks jumper with 15:57 left in the game. 

Tied 15-15 in the opening half, Rider used a 6-0 run, two points each by Banks, sophomore Robin Perkins (Willingboro/Trenton Catholic) and senior Marritta Gillcrease (Pittsburgh, Pa./Perry Traditional) to take a 21-15 lead with 5:31 left in the opening period.

Perkins had 13 points for the Broncs with Gillcrease adding four points and nine rebounds, four on the offensive glass.

The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game had six ties and eight lead changes.

Rider led 25-23 at intermission.

Canisius was led by 14 points from Tiahana Mills and 10 points and seven rebounds from Crystal Porter.  The Broncs held Golden Griffin leading scorer Kayla Hoohuli to eight points and only three points in the second half.

“She (Hoohuli) is an all conference kid,” Milligan said.  “They are a good basketball team and we knew defensively we had to guard them for all 40 minutes.  I thought Marritta (Gillcrease) and Julia (Duggan) and Lashay (Banks) did a good job on the perimeter guarding their post players.  The only thing we did wrong was give them one too many offensive rebounds.”

Each team had 36 rebounds with the Golden Griffins holding a 12-9 advantage on the offensive glass.

Rider out-shot Canisius 42 percent (21-50) to 33 percent (18-55).  Each team made three shots from three-point range.

“It was your average MAAC battle and just a great ball game,” Milligan said.  “I thought we did a great job defensively and that's just what we're built on this year.  We know if we defend, we give ourselves a chance to win and we did that today.  Overall I thought it was a really solid game and a great win for us.”

Rider improved to 6-8 all-time under Milligan in one-point games and since 1977-78, Rider is 24-24 in games decided by the slimmest of margins.

The Broncs improved to 5-6 this season in games decided by five points or less.

“We have certainly have had our share of ones that we would like to get back from the beginning of the season, there's no doubt about it,” Milligan said.  “But a lot of the credit goes to these young ladies because we know in February we're going to put ourselves in those situations because of the way we defend, so we were ready for this. It's a situation (close games) we've practiced every day.”

“It was hard for us to get to this point of the season with all of the close losses,” Pellet said.  “Now that we're finally here, it feels so good.  We've come together and communicate so well on defense. Today we struggled a little bit on offense, but we've had such a good defense, we knew we could win even if we weren't perfect.”

The Broncs snapped a seven-game losing streak to Canisius and Rider won for the eighth time in 38 games all-time against the Golden Griffins.

The teams meet in Buffalo, New York on February 20.

Rider hosts Siena on Thursday at 5pm, in a doubleheader with the Rider men that will be seen on ESPN 3.

-RU-