South Orange, NJ – The Rider University women's basketball team fell on the road to host Seton Hall, 85-49, on Saturday afternoon at Walsh Gymnasium in the first game of the 2017 SHU Thanksgiving Classic.

The Broncs (0-5) dropped their fifth straight contest to begin the campaign, while the Pirates (3-1) bounced back after a setback to Princeton in their last game.  

After Rider sophomore Aubre Johnson (Post Falls, ID/Post Falls) knocked down a free-throw to tie the game at three 90 seconds into the contest, Seton Hall went on an 8-0 run over the next three minutes to take a lead it would not relinquish for the remainder of the afternoon. During the spurt, the Pirate press forced a trio of turnovers and held Rider without a made basket. Following a pair of lay-ups from senior Kamila Hoskova (Brno, Czech Republic/Sportovni Gymnazium Ludvika Danka), SHU reeled off another 8-0 run to stretch their lead to 13 late in the first.

In the second quarter, Seton Hall outscored Rider, 19-11, to take 42-24 advantage into halftime. During the first half, SHU hit 5-of-13 shots from beyond the arc and had 12 assists on 14 made field goals to build the double-digit edge. On the opposite side, Rider was 1-of-8 deep and dished out one assist on eight made baskets during the first 20 minutes.

Seton Hall came out hot in the second half, knocking down six of their first seven shots from the field to pull away.

Off the bench, freshman Jaiden Morris (Richmond, VA/Monacan) paced the Rider attack with a career-high 17 points on 7-of-17 shooting from the field. Junior Lexi Posset (Pittsburgh, PA/Beaver Area) added eight points for the Broncs thanks to knocking down three shots from the free-throw line, while sophomore guard Stella Johnson (Denville, NJ/Morris Catholic) chipped in seven points on an efficient 2-of-4 shooting.  

NOTES & QUOTES
"Most people will see the score and not really know what happened here today. As crazy as it sounds I haven't felt this way about a loss this year since the Bucknell game. We needed to take a discipline step today and we did that. Seton was better today. Hats off to them." – Rider Head Coach Lynn Milligan

"Take away some of our open-floor turnovers and we make some shots and it's a different game. We followed our game plan today which was to play as hard as we could for 40 minutes. We did that. Regardless of the score we played hard." – Milligan

"Stella is still adjusting to her new role. It's a big role for her. She does what she does. There's no more competitive person on our team than Stella Johnson." – Milligan  

- Seton Hall leads the all-time series, 11-0.
- In the first quarter, Seton Hall was 7-of-7 from the free-throw line, while Rider hit just 4-of-8 attempts from the charity stripe.
- Rider kept Seton Hall scoreless for the first 4:10 of the fourth quarter. The Broncs also held SHU without a made field goal for the first six and a half minutes.
- Rider kept fighting throughout and opened the fourth quarter on an 11-1 run.
- The Broncs forced nine SHU turnovers in the fourth quarter as they outscored the Pirates, 15-9.

BRONCS BY THE NUMBERS
- All seven of Stella Johnson's points came in the fourth quarter.
- Morris made a career-high seven shots from the field. She also grabbed four rebounds and had a team-high two assists.
- Six different Broncs had one steal apiece.
- Rider was 14-of-22 from the free-throw line. It marked the third straight game in which the team has taken at least 22 attempts from the free-throw line.
- Four different Broncs had four rebounds.   

UP NEXT
Rider closes out the 2017 SHU Thanksgiving Classic on Sunday, November 26, with a contest at noon versus the loser of this afternoon's East Carolina – Jacksonville State game. The Broncs have never faced ECU or JSU. Tomorrow's tilt features live stats, video and audio feeds. For links visit the women's basketball schedule page on GoBroncs.com.