Broncs drops two straight after winning last four

By Kadie Digiuseppe

Rider women’s basketball had its four-game winning streak snapped on Feb. 29 when it traveled to Niagara and March 2 at Canisius, bringing its season record to 9-18 with one week left before the team will travel to Atlantic City to play in the MAAC tournament. 

Winning streak ends

It was an uphill battle from the start for the Broncs after going down 21-13 at the end of the first quarter. 

Graduate student guard Jessika Schiffer and freshman center Kaylan Deveney were hot from the start with three-pointers. When the Broncs could get open, they shot almost 50% from the three-point line. 

The second quarter was one of the hardest for the Broncs’ offense, scoring only seven points the entire quarter to end the first half down 39-20.

Things started to pick up after halftime for Rider on the offensive end of the court, but Rider struggled the whole game defensively. 

Deveney and Schiffer stayed consistent, putting up points the whole quarter with help from graduate student guard Taylor Langan and freshman guard Aliya McIver. 

In the fourth quarter, Rider cut the game as close as 13, but Niagara’s offense quickly responded to end the game with the 75-56 upset over the Broncs. 

 Schiffer finished the game with 15 points, just one point behind her career high, and a career-high five three-pointers. 

Deveney finished with a career-high 14 points as well as a career-high in field-goals made and assists. 

“Obviously disappointed in the outcome,” Head Coach Lynn Milligan said. “Our ball security in the first half really hurt us, I was happy with the effort in the second half. We were able to cut down the lead, and even play basketball. Niagara sped us up and we just didn’t get enough shots up.”

‘We’ve got to connect better’

To finish off the week for the Broncs, they traveled to Buffalo, New York to play Canisius, who Rider had defeated previously this season at home. 

The first quarter started off well for the Broncs’ offense, going up an early 18-7, but Canisius caught up to them and the first quarter ended tied at 20. 

Rider kept things close on both sides of the court during the second quarter while only being down 33-30 at halftime. 

In the second half, Rider struggled to stop Canisius’ offense and get their own offense back up and running but went down by 17 at the start of the fourth quarter. 

Rider cut it to nine points near the middle of the fourth but couldn’t find a way to stop the Canisius offense from scoring and ultimately getting their redemption over the Broncs with a final score of 73-62. 

Langan played a great game against Canisius where she not only led the team in scoring 20 points, but also put up 10 rebounds for a double-double. 

Junior guard Mariona Cos-Morales ended the game with nine points while Deveney and senior guards Makayla Firebaugh and Molly Lynch all ended with their own eight points. 

“We’ve got to connect a little bit better as far as how we want to guard certain things and make sure we’re all on the same page,” said Milligan. “Our communication has to be at a high level in order for us to be able to make the adjustments we need to make and get the stops and scores that we need.”

Rider will play their last two regular season games starting with their final home game of the season on Mar. 7 before the MAAC tournament in Atlantic City. 

The game will also be streamed live on ESPN+.