Men's College Basketball

Canisius College 67, Rider University 61

BUFFALO, NY— Super Bowl Sunday is annually the second largest day of food consumption in the U.S., after Thanksgiving.

This year, the Rider Broncs were consumed by turnovers and the Canisius Golden Griffins are giving thanks.

The Broncs, playing their fourth game in eight days, lost a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game at Canisius Sunday afternoon.

“We just did not play with any energy,” said Rider head coach Kevin Baggett. “When you don't move it is easy to be guarded. We played like we are tired, which we are. But that is not an excuse. We turned the ball over too many times and that is why we lost. Give Canisius credit, they pressed us and did a good job.”

Rider (10-15, 6-8 MAAC) out-scored Canisius 13-5, six points by senior Zedric Sadler (Detroit, Mich./Cody), to cut the lead to 65-61, but that was as close as the Broncs could get. “We started to play with urgency and that got us back into it,” Baggett said. “We got it close but again we turned the ball over at a crucial time. We made mistake after mistake today.”

Canisius (11-14, 6-8 MAAC) used a 14-0 run, four points by Jamal Reynolds, to take a 50-37 lead with 12:15 left in the second half. Rider missed six shots and committed five turnovers during the 14-0 run. The Broncs committed 17 turnovers in the game.

The Golden Griffins were led by Kassius Robertson, who scored 19 points, 12 in the second half, making four three-pointers. Robertson scored 24 against Rider last Sunday.  “He makes difficult shots,” Baggett said. “He's a good player.”

Rider was led by junior Kahlil Thomas (Parkway, Fla./Blanche Ely), who compiled 19 points and eight rebounds.

Rider out-scored Canisius 6-2 over the final 2:18 of the first half, four points by Thomas, to cut the lead to 34-30 at halftime.

Golden Griffin Phil Valenti was assessed a technical foul as the first half ended and graduate student Teddy Okereafor (London, England/VCU) made both foul shots to cut the lead to 34-32. Okereafor finished with seven points and seven assists.

Also for Rider, junior Xavier Lundy (Paulsboro, NJ/Paulsboro) contributed 13 points and six rebounds off the bench, while junior Jimmie Taylor (Branford, Fla./Suwannee) added 12 points and a game-high nine rebounds. It was the fourth time Taylor grabbed a career-high nine rebounds in a game. As a team Rider out-rebounded Canisius 41-26.

Trailing 23-19, Canisius went on an 11-0 run, seven points by Robertson, to take a 30-23 lead with 4:29 left in the first half.

The loss was just the third in the last nine games for Rider. The victory snapped a four-game losing streak for Canisius.

The Broncs defeated Canisius 79-68 last Sunday at Rider. “At our place we did a good job against their zone,” Baggett said,  “Today they did a better job against us, because we didn't cut and move the ball well enough and execute well enough.”

This was the fourth time Rider and Canisius met on Super Bowl Sunday, with the Broncs winning the first three.

Rider will host first place Monmouth on Friday, February 12 at 9pm. “We're looking forward to a little rest between now and then and looking forward to getting back home,” Baggett said.

The game with Monmouth will be nationally televised on ESPNU.

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