January 29, 2007 - Siena 87 Rider 55
January 29, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Women’s College Basketball
Siena College 87, Rider University 55
LOUDONVILLE, N.Y.—Rider lost a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game at Siena Monday night. “Teams are just annihilating us,” said head coach Tori Harrison. “We’re young and the other teams are comprised of mostly juniors and seniors but our kids have to understand that eventually they have to want to compete and we’re not doing that.”
For the Broncs, freshman Stephanie Wisniewski (Levittown, Pa./Villa Joseph Marie) finished one off her career-high scoring 12 points and adding five rebounds.
“The team made an effort to get myself and Ashley [Anderson] involved by getting the ball into the post,” said Wisniewski who finished one point off her career-high. “But we didn’t have a very good game rebounding and that hurt us tonight. It was a very physical game.”
“Stephanie has the potential to be a great talent,” said Harrison. “Both our leading scorers tonight were freshman and with that you have freshmen growing pains. We’re making small strides but we are still making young mistakes.”
“The teams we are playing have a lot of experience together,” Wisniewski added. “We are still building a program, getting used to playing with each other and our opponents seem to have more experience as a unit.”
Rider freshman Ashley Anderson (East Orange) scored 11 points off the bench, including Rider’s first seven of the game but was limited to 12 minutes due to foul trouble.
“The foul trouble hurt us,” Harrison added. “And Ashley was limited in the second half because Siena made an adjustment and started double-teaming her.”
Down 47-29 at the half, Rider cut the Saint lead to 12 at 47-35 with 18 minutes left on the strength of an 8-2 run, four points by senior Kara Borel (East Stroudsburg, Pa./Stroudsburg). Borel finished with eight points.
Siena (5-15, 4-6 MAAC) out-scored Rider 17-10 over the next six minutes, opening up a 25-point lead at 64-39.
The Saints jumped out to an 11-0 lead in the first four minutes of the game, four points by senior Katelyn Dooley. Dooley finished with 11 points.
Rider (1-20, 0-10 MAAC) traded baskets with Siena, cutting the Saint lead to nine at 18-9 with 14 minutes left in the first half before Siena went on a 13-6 run to lead 31-15 with eight minutes left in the opening half.
Sophomore Shondaya Burrell scored seven straight points for Siena as the Saints moved out to a 20 point lead with 1:39 left and the Saints led by 18 at the half. Burrell finished with 11 points and nine rebounds.
Siena shot 60 percent from the field in the first half and 54 percent for the game, out-rebounding Rider 45-22 including 19-11 on the offensive glass.
“We’re being out hustled and out maneuvered,” Harrison added. “The team is not playing like basketball players should and that’s probably the most frustrating part.”
Junior Laura Menty, who won All-MAAC honors and was the 2005 conference Rookie of the Year, led five Saints in double-digits with 20 points with junior Melissa Manzer adding a career-high 10 assists. Siena was credited with 22 assists on 34 made baskets.
Also for Rider, junior Kelli Sawyer (Philadelphia, Pa./Friends Select/LIU) had four points, four rebounds, four assists and tied a career-high with four steals.
The Broncs were held without a three-point field goal (0-13) for the first time since January 12, 2006 when the Broncs went 0-10 from long-range against Niagara.
Rider, which has now dropped 10 straight, travels to New Rochelle, New York to take on Iona Friday night in a MAAC game.
-RU-
