ALBANY, NY – Sophomores Tyere Marshall (Philadelphia, PA/Martin Luther King/Putnam Science) and Stevie Jordan (Bensalem, PA/Conwell-Egan/API) scored 13 points apiece, but the top-seeded Rider University men's basketball team fell to No. 9 Saint Peter's, 66-55, in the MAAC Quarterfinals Friday night at the Times Union Center.

After Saint Peter's opened the game with seven of the first eight points, Rider methodically whittled away at the deficit before taking its first lead on a Karamoko Cisse (Denver, CO/Gillette College [Trinidad St.]) bucket at the 12:56 mark. A 7-0 Rider spurt, including consecutive Marshall conversions inside, gave the Broncs separation that would later move to eight points. But the Peacocks scored the half's final 10 points to take a 27-25 advantage into the halftime break.

Saint Peter's held Rider without a field goal for the final five minutes of the first half and nearly the first nine minutes in the second half. Meanwhile, the Peacocks' lead swelled to as many as 15 points before the Broncs cut it to nine on two occasions, but Rider could draw to no closer than nine.

Quotes & Notes
"We just didn't play well. We played out of character today."
 
"I just thought we pressed the entire game. I thought when Stevie picked up that second foul, it changed the complexion of the game. We had an eight-point lead. I never felt like we played well together as a team today. And give them credit because no one was trying to do it selfishly, but we just had too many guys just trying to win the game for us instead of playing as a team like we normally do. We got out of character and everybody was going one-on-one and I couldn't get these guys to buy into that part of it."

"One of our keys tonight was we needed to score 40-plus points in the paint in order for us to win and we scored 20."

"We've got to learn from it. We've got to practice the right way. Guys have to be more consistent. That's part of growing up though and learning from these tournaments is different from the regular season. We've got to understand that and I've got to do a better job. It starts with me first." – Rider Head Coach Kevin Baggett

"As a team, we just underrated people."

"To be honest, the past two games that we played them, we did our jobs on the scouts and everything. But people weren't bought in today. For some reason, people just weren't bought in on the scouts, took them lightly and they punished us." – Rider redshirt freshman forward Dimencio Vaughn

"We knew exactly what we had to do to win this game. We just didn't execute and play the way we usually do." – Rider sophomore guard Stevie Jordan

- Saint Peter's cut the Broncs' lead in the all-time series to 35-30.
- The Broncs are now 14-21 in MAAC Championship play since joining the league in 1997-98.
- Rider now awaits its opponent in the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) after earning an automatic berth as the MAAC's top seed.
- Rider entered the game at No. 62 in the RPI, matching its season high.

Broncs by the Numbers
- A game after establishing season high's in field-goal percentage (61.4) and points (110), the Broncs shot a season-low 30.6 percent (15-49) and scored a season-low 55 points.
- Jordan made 5-of-11 field-goal attempts and added three assists and three steals.
- Marshall scored 13 points on 3-of-7 from the floor and 7-of-11 from the free-throw line, while grabbing seven rebounds.
- Anthony Durham (Philadelphia, PA/Abington/Putnam Science) contributed 10 points and six rebounds.
- Dimencio Vaughn (New York, NY/Calloway) also chipped in with eight points and a team-high nine rebounds. He also added three assists and three steals.
- After outscoring MAAC opponents, 730-505, in the paint this season, Saint Peter's took a 32-20 advantage in the paint Friday.