Women's College Basketball
Rider University 56, Manhattan College 49
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Game

RIVERDALE, N.Y.—Behind 22 points from junior Robin Perkins, the Rider University women's basketball team continued its recent strong play with a 56-49 win on the road at Manhattan College on Sunday afternoon.

Despite battling foul trouble all game, Perkins (Willingboro/Trenton Catholic) recorded her seventh 20-plus point effort of the season, making four three-pointers.

“Robin did a good job, especially in the second quarter, playing extended minutes and not picking up that third foul,” said head coach Lynn Milligan. 

Manhattan was led by 14 points and 13 rebounds from Crystal Ross.

Rider led 5-2 before Manhattan used a 7-0 run to take a four-point lead with 1:52 left in the opening quarter and the Jaspers led 12-8 at the end of period one.

Trailing 14-12, Rider (8-21, 5-15 MAAC) held the Jaspers to a 1-11 shooting stretch and the Broncs went into intermission leading 22-18 after the 10-4 burst, with Perkins scoring five of the points.

Manhattan (14-15, 11-9 MAAC) scored the first field goal of the third quarter before the Broncs used a 9-0 run, three points by Perkins and two points each from senior Manon Pellet (Marseille, France), junior Julia Duggan (Marmora/Ocean City) and sophomore C'quoya Haughton (Albany, N.Y./Stoneleigh Burnham Prep) to open up a 31-20 lead with 6:31 left in the period.

Pellet finished with six points and seven rebounds, Duggan had six points and six rebounds and Haughton had eight points, nine rebounds and two assists.

Trailing 37-24, the Jaspers went on a 11-1 run, cutting Rider's lead to three with 1:15 left in the third period.

Leading 43-39, Rider used nine straight points by Perkins to take a 13-point lead (52-39) with 5:03 left in the game.

“Robin had a big burst and kind of put the game out of reach,” Milligan added.

Rider went four for four from the free throw line in the final 37 seconds to clinch the victory.  The Broncs went 12-16 from the free throw line in the game.

Also for Rider, sophomore Kamila Hoskova (Czech Republic) had seven points, including a five for five effort from the charity stripe and she pulled down four rebounds.

Rider held a 40-35 rebounding advantage and the Broncs out-shot the Jaspers 41 percent (20-49) to 17-60 (28 percent).

“We pride ourselves on our defense and while that hasn't been the most consistent this season, we stuck to the game plan today, on the road and in a tough environment.  Our transition defense was key.”

Rider avenged a 74-70 loss to the Jaspers in Lawrenceville on January 25.  Manhattan leads the all-time series 29-13, however the teams have split the last six meetings.

Rider and Niagara University both finished the regular season with five wins in conference play and due to neither having a tie breaker advantage over Fairfield University, Monmouth University and Manhattan College which finished conference play 11-9, the nine and 10 seeds for the conference tournament were decided via coin flip Sunday evening.

The nine seed Niagara will play eighth seed Canisius College at 9:30am on Thursday at the Times Union Center in New York and the 10th seed Broncs will face seventh seeded Siena College at 11:30am, also on Thursday in Albany, New York.

“We are excited to be playing better basketball at this time of year,” Milligan added.  “That's why today was important, we wanted to continue playing well on the road.  For the playoffs, everyone is 0-0 and on an even playing field and we'll see what happens.”

-RU-