Bruised Broncs pick up needed win
By Kadie Digiuseppe
It was a hard couple of weeks for Rider women’s basketball, but the Broncs managed to pick up their first win since Jan. 13, with a much-needed win over Manhattan on Feb. 10
Mount malaise
On Feb. 8, the team tried to snap their six-game losing streak on the road against Mount St. Mary’s, but instead, added another tough loss to its record with a 64-43 defeat.
After the first 10 minutes of play, the score was 13-12 in favor of the Broncs with help from their starting lineup, including senior forward Sofie Bruintjes and freshman center Kaylan Deveney, the Broncs’ leading scorer in the game, both getting points in the paint.
The Broncs’ defense slowly started to fall apart during the second quarter, letting the Mountaineers outscore them 33-21.
Rider gave up 21 more points before the end of the first half, and then surrendered 18 more points during the third quarter.
Ultimately, the Broncs were not able to pull off the road win, making it their 10th road loss so far this season with a final score of 64-43.
Getting a big win
The Broncs were right back at on Feb. 10 in Alumni Gym against Manhattan, who they had previously lost to by 34 points.
After the team’s loss to Mount St. Mary’s, graduate student guard Taylor Langan admitted that Rider strongly focused on defense.
“Today was the first game where we kind of put offense as a second hand and we put defense as our number one priority,” Langan said.
Langan was on a roll with nine points in the first quarter. She was joined with senior guard Molly Lynch, shooting 100% from the 3-point line and also scoring nine points in the quarter to help the Broncs lead 22-15 in the first 10 minutes.
At the break, the Broncs scored almost the same amount of points that they had scored in the entirety of their last matchup against the Jaspers where they scored 39 points. The score was 36-24 in favor of Rider at halftime.
Rebounds and steals came up big for the Broncs with help from senior guard Makayla Firebaugh, who had two steals during the first half. Junior guards Sanaa Redmond and Mariona Cos-Morales got rebounds on both sides of the court assisting in the effort.
The second half for the Broncs was back-and-forth, due to Manhattan finally getting shots to go its way, and the Rider defense struggling to catch up.
The Broncs led for the entirety of the game until the last five minutes when the Jaspers cut the game to two points after a 3-pointer.
With 40 seconds left, Rider went up by one point after Langan made 1-of-2 free throws, but Cos-Morales got a clutch steal to send Redmond to the free throw line with 30 seconds left.
Firebaugh was sent to the free throw line 15 seconds later for two extra points to secure the hard fought win.
Langan ended the game with 15 points and eight rebounds while Lynch ended with a career high 13 points and three steals.
After the game, Head Coach Lynn Milligan praised her team and said, “I’m happy that we got this win at home. I’m happy that we are off this little stretch we were on.”
The Broncs are 6-16 on the season and will travel to New York to matchup against Iona on Feb. 15 at 6 p.m., hoping to add another win to their record.
