November 26, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Men's College Basketball

Rider University 71, Boston University 64

LAWRENCEVILLE--Rider earned its first victory under interim head coach Tommy Dempsey, defeating Boston University Saturday afternoon. “It was important to win today,” said Dempsey.  “It felt good, but not on a personal level. It’s not about me. This team needed a win.”

Rider (1-2) began the season losing at the buzzer to Bucknell, and then Bucknell went on to win at 17^th ranked Syracuse.  Rider then lost a hard-fought battle at Drexel, and Drexel went on to reach the semi-finals of the NIT, giving Duke all it could handle. Now comes BU, a team that also gave Duke a run for its money before losing by 17, and then BU lost to Michigan by just five points.

“With Vilanova up next, we’re starting the season against four legitimate NCAA tournament teams,” said Dempsey, “so it was important to get this win today and take a little pressure off.”

Sophomore Jason Thompson (Mt. Laurel, NJ/Lenape) scored 19 points, and senior Edwin Muniz (Passaic, NJ/Passaic) had 16 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Broncs.  “I’ve talked all season about finding our identity, and our identity starts with Jason and Edwin,” said Dempsey.  “I think they are one of the best one-two punches in the MAAC. The first two games, due to foul trouble, we didn’t have them both on the floor at the same time very much, and that hurt us. Today we needed to see them on the floor together and we did.”

Rider jumped out to a 15-7 lead, six points by Muniz, and never trailed. Rider ended the first half with a 15-5 run, five of those 15 points by Muniz, to lead 39-24 at intermission. Due to foul trouble Muniz was held scoreless in his last game, playing just 16 minutes at Drexel.  “The coaches said to put the Drexel game behind me, and today was like a redemption day for me,” said Muniz.  “Today I wanted to show what we could do when we’re not in foul trouble.”

Trailing 62-44 with 7:35 left, BU (0-3) went on an 11-0 run, as Corey Hassan made three three-point field goals, to cut the lead to 62-55 with 5:14 left to play. Hassan finished with 14 points, making four three-point field goals. “Our team is built on playing with confidence, so if we’re open, I want us to shoot,” said Dempsey.  “During that stretch we had some good looks, the shots just didn’t fall, and they made some threes and they had new life.”

The closest BU could get was 64-59 with 1:49 left, on a pair of baskets by Brian Macon, but Rider made seven of 10 foul shots in the final 1:17 to seal the victory. Macon finished with 14 points for the Terriers.

For Muniz, it was his second ‘double-double’ of the season. Thompson just missed a ‘double-double’ with nine rebounds, and collected his first dunk of the season that gave Rider its biggest lead, 50-30 with 15:12 left to play.  “That was an emotional play for me, since it was my first dunk of the year,” said Thompson. “Hopefully I’ll get a few more of them.”

Brendan Sullivan came in off the BU bench to make five of seven three-pointers, finishing with a team-high 15 points.

Sophomore Kam Warner (Pleasantville) made his first collegiate start, replacing the injured freshman Lamar Johnson (Scranton, PA), and Warner compiled nine points on three three-point field goals. Johnson was out with a hip injury suffered in practice, and is listed as day-to-day.

Rider plays Villanova at the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton November 30 at 7:30pm.

-RU-