Rider falls to Quinnipiac in fourth straight loss

By Benjamin Shinault

In Alumni Gym on Dec. 6, Rider men’s basketball celebrated A.J. the Bronc’s birthday while the team took on the Quinnipiac Bobcats. Much to the displeasure of A.J, Rider couldn’t pull out a win as it lost their fourth straight game, 72-67. 

Head Coach Kevin Baggett made some adjustments to the lineup for the Quinnipiac matchup. The usual starters, sophomore guards Ruben Rodriguez and Ife West-Ingram, started the game off on the bench.  Junior guard Zion Cruz and freshman guard Flash Burton logged starts in the backcourt.

The Bobcats jumped out to an  4-0 lead over the Broncs before senior guard Jay Alvarez got the ball rolling for Rider with a midrange jumper. The Bobcats did a good job at controlling Alvarez as he shot 4-of-11 from the field and hit one of his four shots from beyond the arc.

As a whole, the Broncs had their fair share of struggles with three-point shooting as they only registered an 18% shooting percentage from three in the first half and only made six of their 23 attempts overall.

The Broncs took their first lead of the game with a 3-pointer from graduate student guard T.J. Weeks Jr. putting Rider up 13-10. Weeks, in the second half, left early with a non-shooting shoulder injury and did not reenter the game.

Rider maintained its lead up until the Bobcats took back the lead with five minutes remaining off a layup to make it 25-23. As the game went on, Rider’s interior defense dwindled; the Bobcats were able to score 34 points down low.

After Quinnipiac knotted the game up, the beginning stages of a back and forth began as both the Broncs and Bobcats exchanged buckets up until the first half game to a close. Rider entered the locker room down 31-29.

Coming out of the break, Cruz got right to work with a bucket to tie it back up at 31. Cruz, in his first start with Rider, recorded 15 points, a Division I career high. 

“It felt great. My coach trusted me to come in and start and try to give this team a spark so it felt good,” Cruz said.

A few possessions later, Quinnipiac began a small run to take a five-point lead over Rider.

A big piece to the Quinnipiac win was its edge in rebounding as the Bobcats had 37 rebounds in comparison to Rider’s 29. Quinnipiac was also dominant with offensive rebounding as well, leading to 15 second-chance points.

“We didn’t come up with the rebounds when [Quinnipiac] took shots at inopportune times,” Baggett said.

With just under 10 minutes to go in the second half, the Bobcats got out to their biggest lead of the game as they went up 54-47 off a 3-pointer. But, similar to the Fairfield matchup on Dec. 4, the Broncs stormed back and tied up the game with two huge free throws from Burton and a big three from Alvarez.

“We trust Flash. He stepped up and made big free throws already through the first couple games,” Baggett said.

After the big shots from Burton, Quinnipiac took complete control of the game and put it to bed with a 5-2 run to close out the game and give Rider an 0-2 start to Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference play.

“We are panicking, and in late-game situations, you can’t panic,” graduate student forward Tariq Ingraham said. “It’s frustrating going down two in league play, but like coach said, we need to get practicing and ensure we get things right.”

The Broncs will take a brief pause with MAAC play as they prepare to face off against Stony Brook on Dec. 14 at home at 1 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.