December 9, 2006 - Siena 87 Rider 79
December 9, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Men's College Basketball
Siena College 87, Rider University 79
ALBANY, NY—The Broncs lost a back and forth, Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game to Siena at the Pepsi Arena Saturday afternoon. “This was a good college basketball game between two good college basketball teams,” said Rider head coach Tommy Dempsey. “They made a few more plays than we did in the last three minutes of the game today, but I thought it was pretty evenly played.”
Rider (6-3, 1-1 MAAC) led 66-64 before Siena (5-3, 2-0 MAAC) went on an 11-2 run with five different players scoring to take a 75-68 lead with 5:00 left to play. That was the 12th and final lead change of the game.
Holding a 79-77 lead, Siena went on a 6-0 run, four points by sophomore guard Kenny Hasbrouck, to take an 85-77 lead. Hasbrouck finished with 23 points and senior center Michael Haddix led all scorers with 27 points. “We did not have a lot of answers stopping those two in crunch time,” Dempsey said. “We couldn’t keep Hasbrouck under control down the stretch, and Haddix busted our zone posting up.”
Trailing 75-68, Rider went on a 7-4 run, five points by junior Jason Thompson (Mt. Laurel/Lenape), to cut the lead to 79-77 with 2:12 left, but that was as close as the Broncs could get. Jason Thompson finished with 22 points and 12 rebounds, his 18th career ‘double-double’ and the fifth of this year.
“Obviously, this is not the same team that came to Albany last year,” Siena coach Fran McCaffery said of Rider. “Tommy has done a great job with them. They have a potent offense and with Thompson one of the top players in the league. I feel very good about this victory.”
Siena led 38-31 before Rider scored the final seven points of the first half, all by Jason Thompson, including a three-pointer at the buzzer, to tie the score 38-38 at the half.
Rider led 24-22 before Siena went on a 12-2 run, eight points by Haddix, to take a 34-26 lead with 4:00 left in the first half.
The game featured 14 ties, the final one being 66-66 with 7:21 left to play.
Senior Terrance Mouton (Lafayette, LA/Acadiana) added 15 points and six assists for the Broncs and sophomore Harris Mansell (Cheltenham, PA) added 12 points, as four Broncs scored in double figures. Mouton made back-to-back three pointers to give Rider a 55-53 lead with 11:43 remaining.
Rider freshman Ryan Thompson (Mt. Laurel/Lenape) compiled 12 points, nine rebounds, four assists and four steals. “Ryan is a talented player, and is going to be a great player, but right now he is disappointed because he feels he couldn’t guard Hasbrouck,” Dempsey said. ‘We gave Ryan that assignment because we know he is going to be a top defender in this league, and hopefully today was a learning experience, guarding an All-League player.”
Also for Siena, freshman forward Edwin Ubiles added 19 points and seven rebounds.
Rider is off until December 20 when the Broncs travel to Villanova. “The players will have a few days off to concentrate on their exams, and then we’re back to work, preparing for Villanova,” Dempsey said.
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