February 26, 2006 - Marist 72 Rider 40
February 26, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Women’s College Basketball
Marist College 72, Rider University 40
LAWRENCEVILLE—The Broncs lost a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game to Marist, the MAAC regular season champion, in the regular season finale Sunday. “Marist is a very strong team,” said Rider head coach Tori Harrison, “ and they showed that today.”
Rider (3-24, 2-16 MAAC) trailed 23-8 before going on a 9-2 run, five points by sophomore Janele Henderson (Brooklyn, NY/Bishop Loughlin), to cut the lead to 25-17 with 5:46 left in the first half, but that was as close as the Broncs cold get. Henderson finished with 10 points. “Janele has given us an offensive spark all season, and continues to do so,” said Harrison.
Marist (21-6, 16-2 MAAC) began the second half with a 10-3 run, eight of those ten scored by 6’3” Meg Dahlman, to take a 43-24 lead with 14:44 left to play. Dahlman led all scorers with 18 points, and also added nine rebounds.
Marist led 33-21 at half time. “It got away from us at certain points,” Harrison said.
Marist went on a 13-0 run to take a 68-35 lead with 2:00 left to play.
For Rider, freshman Danielle Costantino (Norristown, Pa./Archbishop Carroll) led Rider with 12 points. “Danielle has been our spark off the bench for most of the season, but with all of the injuries we’ve had she started for us today and did her usual great job,” said Harrison.
Junior Theia Preston (West Blocton, Ala./Wallace CC) scored 10 points for Rider. “Theia has played well the last few games,” said Harrison.
Rider will now play Thursday in Albany, NY in the first round of the MAAC Championship tournament. “We have a brand new season beginning Thursday,” said Harrison. “We’ll take it one game at a time and see what happens. Last year we upset Loyola in the tournament, and no one expected that. So you never know.”
The official pairings of the tournament will be announced by the MAAC office Monday.
-RU-
