January 20, 2006 - Rider 78 Niagara 70

• Box Score

January 20, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Men’s College Basketball
Rider University 78, Niagara University 70

LAWRENCEVILLE--Sophomore Jason Thompson (Mt. Laurel, NJ/Lenape) scored 23 points and grabbed nine rebounds, and senior Paul Johnson (Virginia Beach, VA/Salem) added a career-high 21 points to lead Rider to a come-from-behind Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference win over Niagara Friday. “I feel a lot of pride in my team right now,” said Rider coach Tommy Dempsey.  “To believe in each other and come back and get that win, it was a testament to their character.”

In a re-match of the 2005 MAAC Championship Game, Rider trailed by 20 points in the first half and came back for its first MAAC win of the season. “I hope this is the first step,” said Dempsey.  “Anytime you are going to turn something around you have to start somewhere.”

The place to start turned out to be at halftime. Rider (5-10, 1-6 MAAC) out-scored Niagara 20-7 to start the second half, six points each by Thompson and freshman Lamar Johnson (Scranton, PA), to cut the lead to 51-50 with 13:18 left to play. Johnson finished with 14 points off the bench. “Lamar made some big shots, and he was diving on the floor for loose balls,” Dempsey said. Lamar Johnson made four of eight three-point attempts, including three of three in the second half.

“We know we can score,” said Thompson.  “We had to get them out of their flow in the second half with pressure and traps on defense.”

With the score tied at 66-66 with 3:38 remaining, Thompson scored a lay-up and Paul Johnson hit a three-pointer, his third of the game, to give Rider a 71-66 lead with 2:45 left. “I just wanted to come out and play well,” said Paul Johnson. “We’re in a hole right now and you can’t give up. You have to just keep playing. Keep fighting. It was pretty urgent tonight. We don’t have that many games left.”

“I’m so proud of Paul,” said Dempsey. “Paul put his arm around me before practice the other day and told me ‘Coach, we won’t quit on you,” and he backed it up today, and I’m really proud of that.”

Holding a 23-19 lead, Niagara (6-10, 3-5 MAAC) went on an 18-2 run, six of those 18 scored by sophomore Charron Fisher, to take a 41-21 lead, and Niagara led 44-30 at the half. Fisher finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds. “No matter how bad things go, we hang together,” said Dempsey.  “We have enough talent in this locker-room to turn things around.”

Niagara out-rebounded Rider 52-29.  “That’s a stat you usually don’t overcome,” said Dempsey.  “I told our guys I didn’t know if we could win the battle on the glass, but we had to contend.”.

“Not only did we win, we won a game where we were down my 20 when everything was going against us,” said Dempsey. “We didn’t play bad defense in the first half, everything seemed to go in for them. It shows they’re buying in.”

Lorenzo Miles added 15 points for Niagara. “Niagara is strong, tough, physical,” said Dempsey. Niagara made 11 three-point field goals, but only one in the second half. “They were hitting a lot of threes in the first half, so we switched to man in the second half and it was very effective.”

Rider travels to Loyola Sunday for a 2:15 MAAC game televised on the Madison Square Garden network.

-RU-