Box Score Men's College Basketball-MAAC Tournament Quarterfinals
Monmouth University 59, Rider University 48
ALBANY, NY—There was nothing charmed about the third time.
The Rider University men's basketball season came to an end Friday, losing to top-seeded Monmouth University in the quarterfinal round of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championship Tournament.
It was the third time this season that Rider lost to the regular season champion Hawks.
“It was a tough one today,” said Rider head coach Kevin Baggett. “I thought our guys battled. I thought we did a good job in some areas.”
One of those areas was not taking care of the ball, committing 21 turnovers. “That was obviously the biggest problem, turning the ball over,” Baggett said, “as far as staying in the game and having opportunities to win the game.”
Monmouth (26-6, 17-3 MAAC) began the second half with a 10-4 run, four points by Chris Brady, to take a 42-20 lead with 16:41 left to play. Brady finished with 12 points and nine rebounds.
Rider out-scored Monmouth 16-1, nine points by junior Xavier Lundy (Paulsboro, NJ/Paulsboro), to cut the lead to 45-39 with 7:47 left to play, but that was as close as the Broncs could get. “Our guys became a lot more aggressive during that stretch,” Baggett explained. “Obviously 'X' made some shots and we were able to get some consecutive stops.”
Lundy finished with a team-high 14 points off the bench. “That run gave everyone on the team energy, the players on the court and on the bench,” Lundy said.
Monmouth used a 12-0 run, with points coming from five different players, to take a 14-6 lead midway through the first half, and the Hawks led 32-16 at the half.
The 16 points was the least Rider scored in a half this year. “It might have been the poorest half we had this year,” Baggett said. “We struggled in a lot of different areas.”
Rider jumped out to a 6-2 lead, four points by junior Kahlil Thomas (Parkway, Fla./Blanche Ely). Thomas, a Third Team All-MAAC selection this year, finished with eight points, five rebounds and a pair of blocks.
Rider (13-20, 8-12 MAAC) held Justin Robinson, the MAAC Player of the Year, to just nine points. Micah Seaborn, the MAAC Rookie of the Year, finished with 14 points.
Rider junior Jimmie Taylor (Branford, Fla./Suwannee), who scored 18 points in the first round win over Quinnipiac, finished with eight points and six rebounds Friday.
Okereafor, a Third Team All-MAAC selection who finished with six assists and six rebounds, was also named to the MAAC All-Academic team on Friday. Okereafor compiled 283 assists in 66 Rider games, 17th most ever at Rider.
Monmouth won by just one point at Rider 79-78 February 12 when First Team All-MAAC guard Justin Robinson made a three-pointer with 3.8 seconds left for the final score. Rider lost at Monmouth 79-58 on February 26. In that game, on ESPN2, MAAC All-Rookie team member Micah Seaborn scored 19 points.
This is Rider's 19th year in the MAAC and the Broncs have won 13 of 32 MAAC Tournament games. Rider reached the MAAC Finals in 2008 and 2005.
The last time Rider suffered a 20-loss season was 2005-06 (8-20).
Rider, the eighth seed, said goodbye to seniors Khalil Alford, Shawn Valentine and Zedric Sadler and graduate student Teddy Okereafor.
”We fell short of our expectations this year,” Okereafor said. “This isn't the way I wanted to go out but I'm glad I went out with this team. I love everybody on this team. I think they are going to have a strong team coming back. As upset as I am about not finishing the way we wanted to I'm still proud of everybody that was a part of this season.”
The third meeting with Monmouth was not the charm, and the 2015-16 season was not charmed, but the class shown by the class of 2016 was nothing but charming.
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