Men's College Basketball

Rider University 102, Marist College 100 (2 ot)

LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ— A Driver's Manual states that to stop a skid, try not to panic, ease off the brake and continue to steer in the direction you wish to go.

During Rider's recent skid, the Broncs didn't panic, they eased off the brake to score the most points in eight years, and continued to steer in the right direction. And the skid stopped.

Rider defeated Marist in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game Thursday, ending a three-game skid.

Rider graduate student Teddy Okereafor (London, England/VCU) compiled a career-high 38 points, making a conference record 25 foul shots, to lead Rider to a double overtime victory.

“Just the way we drew it up, an exciting double overtime win for ESPN3,” said Rider head coach Kevin Baggett. “Our guys did a great job battling back. We were in the mud for a great deal of the game.”

Okereafor missed the first of two foul shots with 1.2 seconds left in the second overtime, and accidently made the second free throw for the final score. “That was fun,” said Okereafor, a Preseason All-MAAC selection.  “We're a resilient team and we really wanted to win this game.”

Okereafor scored nine of Rider's 10 points in the second overtime. His 38 points is the most by a Bronc since Ryan Thompson scored 38 points against Hofstra in 2010.

Rider (5-12, 1-5 MAAC) never trailed in the second overtime.

In the first overtime, Rider senior Zedric Sadler (Detroit, Mich./Cody) scored nine of Rider's 13 points and finished with 21 points. Sadler's three-pointer with 1:51 left in the first overtime gave Rider an 83-81 lead, Rider's first lead since 13-12 nine minutes into the game.

“Coach told me to stay aggressive and keep shooting,” Sadler said. “It has been frustrating at times, because I wasn't playing that well and we weren't winning. But we kept battling. We've been trying to get a win to get us going, to spark a winning streak. Hopefully this is the one.”

“Zed's been coming along in practice,” Baggett said of his senior captain, the MAAC Sixth Man of the Year last season. “We need him.”

Sadler's three-pointer with 21 seconds left in regulation cut the Marist lead to 76-75, before Okereafor's running jumper with 1.3 seconds left in regulation tied the score at 79-79, sending the game into overtime.

Rider trailed 69-60 with 2:00 left in regulation before going on a 10-3 run, five points each by Sadler and junior Kahlil Thomas (Parkway, Fla./Blanche Ely), to cut the lead to 72-70 with 42 seconds left. Thomas finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds, his sixth 'double-double' in the last seven games. “Lilly (Thomas) gutted it out tonight,” Baggett said.

For Marist (4-11, 1-5 MAAC) the backcourt of junior Khallid Hart and freshman Brian Parker combined for 64 points, with Hart scoring 36 and Parker adding 28 points and 13 rebounds.

The loss was the fifth in a row for Marist.

The Broncs beat the Red Foxes twice last season.   Rider and Marist split the series in 2013-14, with the away team winning both games.

Rider has now won 15 of the last 17 meetings with Marist and 21 of the last 29. The two teams have now met 53 times since the series began in 1980-81, with Rider winning 30.

Marist is Rider's oldest conference rival. Both teams were members of the Northeast Conference (1993-97) and both teams joined the MAAC in 1997-98.

The 102 points is the most Rider scored since scoring 102 points in a 2008 MAAC win over Canisius.

Rider lost its last three games by a combined 18 points.

“Hopefully tonight's win will springboard us,” Baggett said. “We've been knocking at the door for a while. I'm happy to see us finally win one of these games at the end.”

Rider hosts first-place Iona Sunday at 4pm on ESPN3.

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