Broncs losers of two straight after Bobcats defeat

By Benjamin Shinault

On Jan. 26, Rider men’s basketball took a trip up north for a Metro Atlantic Athletic
Conference contest against the top-seeded Quinnipiac Bobcats. The Broncs, coming off a gruesome loss to Iona on Jan. 23, were fiending for a win but couldn’t quite hold their lead against the Bobcats, ultimately losing 75-64. 

The first half went well for Rider as it opened up scoring within the first 20 seconds off a layup from sophomore guard Ruben Rodriguez. 

The Bobcats and the Broncs exchanged buckets until the game was knotted up at 10-10. From there, Rider created some separation on Quinnipiac and went up 21-12 thanks to a 11-2 run.

The Broncs lead swelled to 11 after a layup from senior guard Jay Alvarez made the score 26-15. The Broncs’ lead reached 32-25 with seven minutes left to go in the first half, but the Bobcats scratched and clawed their way through a 9-0 run to tie the game at 32 apiece. 

Rider grabbed the lead back with a jumper from graduate student forward Tariq Ingraham. Ingraham finished with 15 points and 14 rebounds, while also grabbing three blocks and two steals. Ingraham recorded his fifth double-double of the year.

The Broncs stopped the penetration of the Bobcats and escaped the first half up 42-39. Rider’s offense was lights out in the first half, finishing with a field goal percentage of 56.7% while lacing all four of its three-point attempts.

Emerging back onto the hardwood of M&T Bank Arena, the Broncs maintained their lead for the first four minutes until Quinnipiac tied it up at 43. 

After the tie, the Broncs and the Bobcats traded buckets until the Bobcats created some separation from the Broncs with a six-point lead with seven and a half minutes to go in the second.

A few minutes passed and the Bobcats saw their lead grow to 65-54 with just five and a half minutes to go. Rider’s offense and defense took a significant dip in the second half. The Broncs saw their field goal percentage collapse to 33.3% and only scored 22 points in the second half.

“Just have to play better defense, especially in the second half when they started to cut the lead and get back into the game and we needed to get more consecutive stops. We didn’t do that today,” Head Coach Kevin Baggett said.

Rider will look to right its wrongs on Jan. 31 against Saint Peter’s. Tipoff will be at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN+.

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