Tuesday, Feb 24, 2015
The team travels to the Jersey Shore for second-place battle in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference
by Rider Sports Information
The Rider University men’s basketball team will play on ESPN3 Thursday night in the battle for second place in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
Rider (19-10, 13-5 MAAC) will travel to the Jersey Shore to take on Monmouth (16-13, 12-6 MAAC) in an hOURglass Rivalry game beginning at 8 p.m. on Feb. 26.
The Broncs have won the last four times they have played on ESPN3, and Rider is 10-4 in away games this year.
ESPN3 is ESPN’s live multi-screen sports network, a 24/7 destination that delivers thousands of global sports events annually and accessible online via WatchESPN.com.
Rider has won five of its last six games, nine of the last 12 and 15 of the last 19 games. The Broncs are coming off of a 65-61 loss to Niagara, a game in which Rider played without its leading scorer and leading rebounder, senior center Matt Lopez.
The Hawks won four straight games before losing by just one point, 69-68, to first place Iona on Sunday. In that game Hawk Justin Robinson scored 24 points and Monmouth shot 51 percent from the field. Monmouth led 67-63 with 2:53 remaining. Monmouth has been led this year by guards Deon Jones and Justin Robinson, who are combining for 25.7 points and 7.8 rebounds per game.
The Hawks came into Rider’s Alumni Gym and defeated the Broncs 55-54 on Jan. 12. In that game Monmouth took its first lead of the game with 1:39 left to play.
Last season Rider won 89-83 at Monmouth on ESPN3 and defeated the Hawks 77-71 in overtime at Rider. In the 2014 MAAC playoffs, Rider again defeated Monmouth 71-60.
Since Rider and Monmouth (and Saint Peter’s) are all about an hour away from each other, the three-way rivalry between the New Jersey MAAC teams is called the hOURglass Rivalry. The spelling of hOURglass represents the fact that it is OUR rivalry.
Thursday night’s game is the final away game of the season. Following that game Rider returns home to play the regular season finale 2 p.m. Sunday, March 1, on ESPN3 vs. Marist. Rider’s two graduating seniors, Matt Lopez and Junior Fortunat, and two graduate students, Anthony D’Orazio and Emerson Bursis, will be honored in a pregame ceremony.