Women's College Basketball
Niagara University 44, Rider University 33
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Game

NIAGARA UNIVERSITY, N.Y.—The Purple Eagles have the Broncs feeling blue.

The Rider University women's basketball team had its four-game winning streak snapped at Niagara University, as the Broncs lost 44-33 on Sunday afternoon.

“That was about an awful offensive performance as you are going to see,” said head coach Lynn Milligan who saw her squad enter play having won eight of its last 11 games.  “This was disappointing.  Nothing fell today.”

Rider was held to a season-low offensive output, despite a career-high eight points from sophomore Taylor Wentzel (Pittsburgh, Pa./Baldwin).

Trailing 8-6, Niagara (13-14, 9-9 MAAC) went on a 14-0 run as the Purple Eagles took a 20-8 lead with 4:38 left in the opening half with nine of the points scored by Victoria Rampado.  Rampado finished with those nine points to lead the Purple Eagle offense.

Senior Emily Fazzini (Wayne, Pa./Archbishop Carroll) hit a three-pointer with 1:10 left before the half to break an 8:46 drought and the Broncs went into intermission trailing 20-11 with the Rider defense holding Niagara off the board for the final 4:38 of the opening half.

Fazzini finished with seven points.

Trailing by eight points with 10:00 left in the game, Wentzel hit a three-pointer to cut the deficit to 25-20 but that was as close as the Broncs would get.

Trailing 6-1 in the opening seven minutes of the game, Rider (11-17, 8-10 MAAC) used a 7-0 run, three points by Wentzel to take an 8-6 lead with 9:56 left in the first half.

Rider opened the game 0-9 from the field, shot 4-24 in the opening 20 minutes and was 12-57 (21 percent) in the game.

Rider was out-rebounded 45-36.

This was the 41st meeting between Rider and Niagara with the Purple Eagles winning for the 28th time.  The teams split the season series with Rider winning in Lawrenceville 61-56 on January 16.

This is the fourth time this season that the Rider defense has held a team in the 40s but the Broncs are only 2-2 in those games, having been held to 40 points in a 43-40 loss at Fairfield University on January 22.

“Defensively, we hold teams in the 40s and the 50s, it's what we do,” Milligan said.  “This time of the year you need to step up and put the ball in the basket.”

Rider entered play tied for sixth place in the conference standings and only half a game behind Siena College (9-9 MAAC) for fifth place and an opening round bye in the MAAC Championships which take place March 5-9 in Albany, New York.  The Broncs fall to seventh place with the loss and two games remaining on the regular season schedule.

“We need to come up with a quick solution with first place Quinnipiac and second place Marist (Saturday) coming up,” Milligan added.  “This is a tough loss for us because we had a lot of things in our control.  We have to work harder, that's all we can do.”

Rider hosts defending MAAC regular season champion Quinnipiac University on Thursday at 7pm.

-RU-