November 25, 2007 - #20 Kansas State 82 Rider 69
November 25, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Men’s College Basketball
#20 Kansas State University 82, Rider University 69
ORLANDO, FLORIDA—In the battle for fourth place in the eight-team Old Spice Classic, the Broncs lost to 20th ranked Kansas State Sunday at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex. “We were playing against three BCS schools and we were in every game right to the last minute,” said Rider head coach Tommy Dempsey. “We learned a lot about our team. This could be a special group.”
Rider (3-3) was led by the Thompson (Mt. Laurel/Lenape) brothers, senior Jason and sophomore Ryan, who combined for 45 points, 20 rebounds, eight assists, five blocks and four steals against the 5-1 Wildcats from the Big 12.
Trailing 66-55 with 7:20 left to play, Rider out-scored K-State 12-5, six points by Ryan Thompson, to cut the lead to 71-67 with 3:30 remaining. Ryan Thompson finished with 21 points and a career-high 13 rebounds.
“Ryan is a big-time player,” Dempsey said. “He really showed up. When you come and play on a national stage (all three games were televised on ESPN2 and ESPNU) three straight days against an ACC, a Big Ten and a Big 12 opponent, the cream has to rise to the top, and Ryan did that.”
K-State led 76-68 before a questionable foul call on Jason Thompson with :43 left resulted in a double technical foul on Coach Dempsey. The foul and the technical foul calls resulted in six unanswered points by K-State, ending Rider’s hopes of a second victory in the three-game tournament.
“I feel bad about the way the game ended, to be honest,” Dempsey said. “We were fighting so hard. To call that foul and then to “T” me so quickly, that basically ended the game. That is when I lost my temper. I am not pleased with the way the game ended, but if we are going to go down we’re going to go down fighting.”
Rider held K-State’s freshman phenom Michael Beasley to 13 points and 10 rebounds. Beasley entered the game averaging 30 points and over 16 rebounds per game.
Trailing 38-24, Rider out-scored K-State 6-2 over the final 2:40 of the first half to cut the lead to 40-30 at intermission. All six of those points were scored by the Thompson brothers.
Jason Thompson finished with a game-high 24 points and seven rebounds, along with four blocked shots. In the three-game tournament Jason Thompson compiled 69 points, 32 rebounds and nine blocked shots. “I think we earned a lot of respect in this tournament,” Jason Thompson said, “and that was one of our goals down here. We wanted to win all three, and we had a chance to win all three, but even though we only won one I think we gained some respect for our program. This experience is going to give us a lot of confidence going into our conference play.”
Rider lost to NC State by nine points and defeated Penn State by nine points in the first two games of the second annual Old Spice Classic.
Jason Thompson moved into second place in Rider career rebounding with 827, and needs 47 to tie the career record of 874 set in 1977. Thompson now has 1,471 career points, one point shy of eighth place on the Rider career scoring list.
Thompson was named to the all-tournament team at the eight-team Old Spice Classic, along with Courtney Fells of North Carolina State, Michael Beasley of Kansas State, Will Thomas of George Mason and Scottie Reynolds of Villanova.
K-State was led by Andre Gilbert’s 22 points, 16 coming in the first half. Gilbert made four of six three-pointers and all four of his foul shots.
The Wildcats scored the first nine points of the game and led 17-6 before the Thompson brothers combined for eight points in a 13-6 Rider run, cutting the lead to 23-19 mid-way through the first half.
Beasley, a projected first-round NBA draft pick at the end of the season, led K-State on a 10-0 run with six points, building a 36-21 lead.
Freshman Patrick Mansell (Cheltenham, Pa.), who came in off the bench in the second half of the victory over Penn State to score his first 13 collegiate points in just 12 minutes of action, added nine points in 14 minutes off the bench against K-State, making two of four three-pointers and three of four foul shots.
Freshman Mike Ringgold (Philadelphia, Pa./Roman Catholic) added nine points and six rebounds for the Broncs.
Rider out-rebounded K-State 41-39, after out-rebounding Penn State 45-35 on Friday.
Rider returns home to host NJIT Wednesday.
-RU-
