Broncs come back at Iona, collapse at Saint Peter’s
By Rich Saile
Coming off an exhilarating buzzer beater, Rider men’s basketball traveled to New Rochelle, New York, on Feb. 14 and walked away with a 74-71 victory over the Iona Gaels. On Feb. 16, the Broncs lost in Jersey City to their rival, the Saint Peter’s Peacocks, 66-65.
Galvanizing against the Gaels
Early on the Broncs offense came out aggressive attacking the basket with a pair of layups from senior forward Jay Alvarez and graduate student guard T.J. Weeks Jr. scored five early points.
In response, the Gaels stormed out on a 19-3 run in less than a five-minute stretch. The Broncs rallied to cut the deficit to single digits at the free throw line.
Junior guard Zion Cruz scored two 3-pointers and a mid-range jumper to spark the Broncs offense, but the Gaels scored eight points in 15 seconds before the buzzer. The Broncs trailed 45-36 at the half.
Frustrated by their first half performance, the Broncs slowly settled into the second half attacking the basket with two free throws by graduate student forward Tariq Ingraham and a Cruz close jumper.
The Broncs found their spark that started from sophomore guard Ruben Rodriguez and Cruz helped the Broncs claw back.
The Broncs catapulted a 21-4 run after trailing by 13 points led by Weeks Jr. and senior forward Tank Byard to put the Broncs in the lead.
In the final six minutes, the Gaels worked hard to keep the game within a score. Byard made a pair of free throws and Rodriguez slithered through the Gaels defense for a layup.
The Broncs defense clamped up the Gaels offense and converted four free throws to seal the 74-71 win.
“We’ve been just trying to work on finishing. There’s a lot of games where we’ve lost off of one play where there’s a tip-in, a shot, a rebound miss, so it’s just us trying to clean everything up and just be disciplined in the fundamentals and just win the game,” said Rodriguez.
“It is a big win, It’s a big road win. We made free throws. We didn’t make them all, but we made at least enough to get back in the game. I thought we did a good job defensively at the end of the game, which we’ve been struggling with,” said Rider Head Coach Kevin Baggett.
Another last-second loss
Early in the first half, the Broncs started out on fire with a 9-0 run led by Ingraham and Cruz. The Peacocks responded with a 3-point barrage while also finding success attacking the rim which stressed the Broncs defense.
Withstanding the Peacocks run the Broncs splashed a pair of 3-pointers from Weeks Jr. and freshman guard Flash Burton.
Down by seven in the final minutes of the first half, Rider made two more 3-pointers from Rodriguez and junior guard Zocko Littleton Jr. to give the Broncs some momentum heading into halftime trailing by 32-31.
Alvarez and Cruz both sank a 3-pointer while Ingraham converted a 3-point play after he was fouled on a layup.
Weeks Jr. continued to spark the Broncs offense, draining another 3-pointer and converted on two free throws to tie the game at 53 all with just over eight minutes remaining.
Burton sliced through the Peacocks defense with two layups while Cruz put the Broncs up five with under three minutes left.
The Peacocks slashed through the Broncs defense to tie the game at 64 all with less than a minute left.
Burton was fouled and had the chance to ice the game for the Broncs but made one of two free throws, giving Saint Peter’s one last chance.
Saint Peter’s had the ball with six seconds left but Rodriguez fouled a Peacock with three seconds left and a chance to spoil the Broncs chances at victory.
The Peacocks converted both free throws to put them up by one. On the next possession, Rodriguez threw a pass into the arms of a Peacock to evaporate the Broncs last chance for a walk-off bucket.
The Broncs eclipsed the 10 3-pointers made at Navy, setting a new season-high with 12 three-pointers made.
However, Rider was doomed by Saint Peter’s ability to rebound, losing 47-25 on the offensive glass.
The Broncs drop to 10-16 on the season with a 6-9 record in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference play. They drop to ninth in the standings and will return to Alumni Gym against the Fairfield Stags on Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. After that Rider will travel to Maryland on Feb. 23 at 2 p.m. to take on Mount St. Mary’s. The games will be broadcasted on ESPN+.
