Men's College Basketball

MAAC Quarterfinals

Saint Peter's University 68, Rider University 59

ALBANY, NY— Upset.

In 1919, a race horse by the name of Upset defeated the greatest thoroughbred horse of all time, Man o' War. Ever since then when an underdog defeats a heavy favorite, it is considered an 'upset.'  Maybe in the future when the underdog wins Rider basketball fans might call it a 'Peacock.'

The Saint Peter's Peacocks, the seventh seed and losers to the Rider Broncs in eight of the previous nine meetings, upset the second seeded Broncs Saturday night in the quarterfinal round of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championship Tournament.

Now it is the Rider fans who are upset, as well as the 2015 MAAC Coach of the Year, Kevin Baggett.  “We didn't play well today,” Baggett said.  “I can't tell you of anybody on our team who played well today.”

Desi Washington scored 22 points and Marvin Dominique added 15 points to lead Saint Peter's (16-17, 8-12 MAAC) to victory over  Rider (21-11, 15-5 MAAC).

Rider began the second half with a 12-1 run, five points by sophomore Jimmie Taylor (Branford, Fla./Suwannee) and four by graduate student Anthony D'Orazio (Camden, NJ/Camden Catholic), to cut the lead to 35-32 with 15 minutes left to play. That was as close as the Broncs could get. Rider's only lead in the game was 2-0.

“We weren't consistent,” said Taylor, who now has 715 points in 63 career games. “We gave ourselves a chance to come back but then we made too many mistakes after that.”

Taylor finished with 10 points and a game-high eight rebounds, while D'Orazio added eight points.

After Rider cut it to three points, Dominique then answered by out-scoring Rider 8-1 to give the Peacocks a 43-33 lead. “I want to congratulate Saint Peter's and Coach Dunne, the way they played today,” Baggett said. “I thought they came out and played like they had nothing to lose.”

Saint Peter's made 12 of 14 foul shots in the final 2:05 to preserve the win. The Peacocks were 30 of 39 from the foul line for the game.

Rider made just 13 of 23 foul shots in the game. “We didn't make our free throws and that is something that has hurt us all year long,” Baggett said.

Junior Khalil Alford (Raleigh, NC/Fishburne Military) scored to cut the Saint Peter's lead to 60-53 and hit a three-pointer with 48 seconds left to cut the lead to 62-56.   Alford finished with 10 points in 16 minutes off the bench. 

Sophomore Kahlil Thomas (Parkway, Fla./Blanche Ely) finished with nine points and junior Teddy Okereafor (London, England/VCU) compiled eight points and five assists. “They forced us into bad shots,” said Okereafor, who was one for seven from three-point range.  “We fell in love with shooting jump shots and we didn't make enough threes.”

Rider was four for 20 from three-point range.

Holding a 22-18 lead, Saint Peter's out-scored Rider 12-2 over the final four minutes of the first half, seven points by Washington, to take a 34-20 lead at the half.

Saint Peter's jumped out to an 8-2 lead, six points by Jamel Fields, who finished with eight. “We did not get off to a good start,” Baggett said.

Rider defeated Saint Peter's twice during the regular season, 68-55 in Lawrenceville January 10 and 58-49 at Saint Peter's January 29.

“They are a different team without Lopez,” said Saint Peter's head coach John Dunne.

The Rider team motto all season has been “No Excuses.”  So the Broncs won't point to the fact that they had to play the MAAC quarterfinal game without their leading scorer and leading rebounder, First Team All-MAAC center Matt Lopez, who is out for the season with a knee injury.

The 15 conference wins this year was the most since Rider joined the MAAC and the 21 wins tied the program record for wins in the regular season. “Today's game doesn't take away from what we did this year,” Baggett said.  “It was just one of those days.”

“This is not a good feeling,” Taylor said, “but we'll learn from this and move on.”

Rider will now wait for a call from a postseason tournament to continue the 2014-15 season.

Rider fans are hoping the Broncs will face a strong postseason contender and put together an 'upset' of their own.

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