Broncs start new year with loss to Stags
By Kadie DiGiuseppe
In Alumni Gym, Rider women’s basketball sought revenge on Jan. 2 against Fairfield for its quarterfinal exit in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament the previous season, but the Broncs fell 69-37 to start the new year, bringing their season record to 2-9 and 0-2 in MAAC play.
The Broncs came out of the locker room competitive after a two-week break but could not contain the Stags by the end of the quarter.
Senior guard Sanaa Redmond gained her first points while senior guard Gabby Turco, senior guard Mariona Cos-Morales and sophomore guard Aliya McIver combined for nine points, giving the Broncs 11 points to Fairfield’s 19 at the end of the first quarter.
The Broncs’ defense looked promising to start the game, but Fairfield did not allow Rider to score in the last two minutes of the quarter and extended its lead to eight.
Freshman guard Camryn Collins started the second quarter off obtaining her first bucket of the game and then making two free throws a couple minutes later.
McIver added another bucket before the Rider offense went cold for the next four minutes.
Facing a 13-point deficit, McIver made another layup but Fairfield responded right back with a 3-pointer.
Turco made two more free throws for the Broncs and a Stag ended the quarter with a buzzer-beating layup, giving Fairfield an 38-21 lead.
Collins started off the third quarter for the Broncs with a jumper and then assisted freshman forward Winner Bartholomew’s first points of the game shortly after.
The Broncs were scoreless for the next two minutes and allowed Fairfield to jump out to a 22-point lead.
Turco finished off the quarter with four more points for Rider, but the Broncs defense still could not stop the Stags and ended the third quarter trailing 55-29.
Bartholomew started the fourth quarter off with a layup, but Fairfield remained in control throughout the final quarter, putting the game far from Rider’s reach.
Fairfield ended the game victorious over Rider 69-37, after Rider was outscored in the second half of the game, 31-16.
On the positive side of things, the Broncs shot 100% from the free throw line, making all 10 of their free throws and did not allow any starting Stag to get into double figures.
Turco finished the game leading the Broncs with nine points and Collins trailed behind her with six while Bartholomew scored her least amount of points since making it into the starting lineup.
“We’ve started off, probably our last three or four games, pretty well… now we need to be consistent doing that. It’s just a consistency factor that we’ve got to do a lot better job of cause we are obviously capable of it,” said Head Coach Lynn Milligan.
The Broncs will travel to Riverdale, New York, on Jan. 4 looking to get their first MAAC win against the Manhattan Jaspers at 2 p.m. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.
