January 5, 2007 - Marist 71 Rider 55
January 5, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Men's College Basketball
Marist College 71, Rider University 55
POUGHKEEPSIE, NY—The Broncs lost a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game at Marist Friday. “Marist has good players and is a tough team to beat up here,” said Rider head coach Tommy Dempsey, “that’s why they’re the top team in the league right now, but we’re coming along. We’re going to be a good team this year.”
Holding a 48-40 lead, Marist (11-4, 3-1 MAAC) went on a 12-5 run, six points by Wilfred Benjamin, to take a 60-45 lead with 8:40 left to play.
Rider (8-6, 2-2 MAAC) went on an 8-2 run to cut the lead to 62-53 with 3:30 left, but could get no closer. Rider never led in the contest, shooting just 37.9 percent from the field. “We have to start shooting the ball better,” Dempsey said. “Our offense has been struggling.”
Holding a 13-10 lead, Marist went on a 12-1 run, eight points by Shae McNamara, to take a 25-11 lead mid-way through the first half, and Marist led 38-26 at halftime. McNamara scored a game-high 14 points off the bench and grabbed seven rebounds. “Shae is a good player,” Dempsey said. ‘Being the sixth man on a team this talented is pretty good.”
Trailing 48-30, Rider went on a 10-0 run, six by sophomore Harris Mansell (Cheltenham, PA), to cut the lead to 48-40 with 12:40 left, but that was as close as the Broncs could get. Mansell missed the Fairfield game and played just 11 minutes at Notre Dame due to a knee injury, and finished with 12 points at Marist.
Rider junior Jason Thompson (Mt. Laurel/Lenape) picked up his third foul with 7:53 left in the first half and played just 27 minutes, finishing with 13 points and 10 rebounds, his eighth ‘double-double’ of the season and the 21st of his career. Thompson was four for 16 from the field. “My teammates did a great job getting me the ball, I just need to do a better job finishing,” Thompson said.
“We got the ball to the spots we wanted to, we just didn’t shoot the ball well tonight,” Dempsey said.
Senior Terrance Mouton (Lafayette, LA/Acadiana) also added 12 points for Rider, 10 in the first half, along with three assists. “Terrance did a good job sharing the ball, we just didn’t make the shots,” Dempsey said. “He should have had seven or eight assists but we missed the shots.”
Marist senior guard Jared Jordan, the national leader in assists for the second straight season, compiled 13 points and 11 assists for his fifth ‘double-double’ of the season.
Marist senior guard Will Whittington added 12 points
Marist 7' center James Smith made a pair of three-point field goals in the first four minutes of the game and finished with nine points.
Rider hosts Saint Peter's Tuesday. “We just have to keep working,” Dempsey said. ‘We’ll go back to work tomorrow and Sunday and Monday and we’ll work our way through this, and hopefully we’ll play better Tuesday.”
Rider won four games in a row in the McCann Center before losing here last season.
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