November 11, 2007 - UMBC 58 Rider 53
November 11, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
College Women's Basketball
Univ. Maryland Baltimore County 58, Rider University 53
BALTIMORE, Md.—The Broncs lost a non-conference game at the University of Maryland Baltimore County Sunday afternoon. “It shows that we can compete in any situation,” said head coach Lynn Milligan. “Down early, on the road, we showed a lot of character battling back and it shows how much this team has grown maturity wise. With that said, we want to be better than just having character, we want to win.”
Down by two with 53 seconds left, UMBC junior Chantay Frazier hit a three-pointer to give UMBC the lead 55-53, the sixth and final lead change of the game. Frazier led UMBC with 14 points. The Broncs turned the ball over on the next possession and three free throws by the Retrievers sealed the win.
“We worked hard to win the game,” Milligan added. “We made a couple of bad decisions down the stretch and didn’t get it done.”
For Rider (1-1), senior Janele Henderson (Brooklyn, N.Y./Bishop Loughlin) played all 40 minutes and scored 19 points, with sophomore Tammy Meyers (Willingboro, N.J./Willingboro) adding 16 points, including 14 in the second half.
Down by two at 52-50, Meyers hit a three-point field goal to give Rider a 53-52 lead with 1:57 remaining in the game. Meyers was two for five (40 percent) in three pointers for the game.
A 12-3 run put Rider up 44-39, the largest lead of the day for the Broncs with eight minutes remaining, keyed by four free throws from Meyers and a circus three-pointer by Henderson from 26 feet to beat the shot clock. Meyers was perfect from the line in the game.
Down six at the half, Meyers hit her first three of the game, sparking an 8-0 Rider run and the Broncs led 30-28 with 17:36 remaining.
The Broncs lost senior guard Kelli Sawyer (Philadelphia, Pa./Friends Select) for the remainder of the game with a twisted ankle and UMBC went on an 8-2 run to lead 36-32 with 15:11 left. Sawyer had five assists and three steals in 18 minutes of action before the injury.
“We battled,” Milligan added. “When your starting point guard goes down in the second half and you stay in the game until the final minute, that shows how much of a team that we have and the potential of the team in future games.”
UMBC (1-1) jumped out to a 9-0 lead and led 16-3 before the Broncs went on an 8-3 run, all eight points by Henderson and the Retrievers led 19-11 midway through the first half. Henderson scored 11 of Rider’s 22 points and UMBC led by four 26-22 at halftime.
Also for Rider, junior Shaunice Parker (Waldorf, Md./West Lake) had eight points and 10 rebounds her second double-digit rebound effort of the season in as many games. Parker also had three steals as the Bronc defense forced 21 Retriever turnovers, the second game in a row that the Rider defense has caused over 20 turnovers.
“We are building the foundation of the program on hard work and strong defense,” said Milligan. “We didn’t do that for the first five minutes of the game but we did do it for the last 35 minutes and came up a little short. We want to build on the positives of the last 35 minutes and learn from what went wrong in the first five minutes.”
UMBC leads the all-time series 5-2 with all seven games decided by eight points or less. Last season, the Retrievers defeated Rider 69-61 in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.
The Broncs host Hofstra in a non-conference game on Thursday at 7:00pm in Alumni Gym. “Hopefully we are healthy,” Milligan said. In addition to losing Sawyer, the Broncs were without sophomore starter Stephanie Wisniewski (Levittown, Pa./Villa Joseph Marie) who was a late scratch with a foot injury and junior Maura Gillooly (Fanwood, N.J./Scotch Plains-Fanwood) who missed her second game in a row with a shoulder injury. “It will be a big game being back on our home floor. We had great crowd support last Friday and hopefully everyone will come back and we will be ready to take on a good Hofstra team.”
-RU-
