January 29, 2006 - Niagara 84 Rider 70
January 29, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Men’s College Basketball
Niagara University 84, Rider University 70
NIAGARA FALLS, NY— The Broncs went to the well once too often. After coming back from double digit deficits in three of the last four games, the Broncs couldn’t overcome a 15-point halftime lead by Niagara in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference loss Sunday. “It is tough to play from behind when you are not playing well, and today we didn’t have our ‘A’ game going,” said Rider coach Tommy Dempsey.
With the loss the Broncs saw their two-game winning streak come to an end. The victory ended Niagara’s three-game losing streak, and avenged a 78-70 loss at Rider nine days ago. “We didn’t play real well today,” said Dempsey. “We didn’t play hard enough the first half. The second half we played extremely hard.”
Rider sophomore Jason Thompson (Mt. Laurel, NJ/Lenape) led all scorers with 21 points and grabbed six rebounds, and senior Edwin Muniz (Passaic) added 12 points and eight rebounds.
Niagara (7-12, 4-7 MAAC) out-scored Rider 10-5 to start the second half, five points by J. R. Duffy, to take a 53-33 lead. Duffy finished with a career-high 24 points. “We never got it going today,” Dempsey said. “We never really clicked offensively.”
Rider (7-12, 3-8 MAAC) led 10-6 before Niagara went on a 12-2 run to take an 18-12 lead with 12 minutes left in the first half. Holding a 25-22 lead, Niagara went on a 12-3 run to take a 37-25 lead, and the Purple Eagles led 43-28 at halftime. “They played better than us today,” said Dempsey.
Lorenzo Miles led Niagara with 25 points, including 16 in the first half. Clif Brown contributed 18 points and 12 rebounds for the Purple Eagles, the defending MAAC Champions.
Niagara led by as many as 22 points (70-48) in the second half.
For Rider, senior Paul Johnson (Virginia Beach, VA/Salem) had eight points and six rebounds, but played just 28 minutes due to foul trouble. “Foul trouble took Paul out of the game,” Dempsey said, “and that caused us a little disruption.”
Freshman Lamar Johnson (Scranton, PA) scored 12 points for the Broncs.
Rider plays at Fairfield Friday in a MAAC game televised on ESPNU. “We need to clear a couple of things up, so the break comes at a good time,” Dempsey said. “This loss makes Friday a big game for us.”
-RU-
