Rider sneaks by Holy Family in Homecoming game
By Benjamin Shinault
A jam-packed Alumni Gym housed Rider mens basketball’s annual exhibition matchup on Oct. 26. The university welcomed back family and alumni to watch the Broncs face the Division II Holy Family Tigers. The Tigers pounced on Rider in a thriller of a game, but the Broncs put them in a muzzle to sneak out with an 84-79 late-afternoon victory.
‘We were in for a game’
The Broncs rolled out in new white uniforms, with Rider’s cranberry lettering across the chest and slick stripes on both the jersey and shorts.
The starting five had three familiar faces: graduate student forward Tariq Ingraham, graduate student guard T.J. Weeks Jr. and sophomore guard Ruben Rodriguez. The final slots were two transfers: senior forward Jay Alvarez and senior guard Tank Byard.
Alvarez scored a 3-pointer to start the game. The Broncs’ three-point shot was one of the few strengths of the game, as they nailed 10 of 17 attempts. Rider hopes it will be one of its strengths this season.
“We do want to shoot a lot more threes,” Head Coach Kevin Baggett said. “I was hoping that would be a strength of ours, but, again, our offense needs to flow better.”
The score was 41-37 at the first half’s conclusion after Holy Family went on a seven-point run, and Rider could not quite put the pesky Tigers away.
Rider’s offense struggled with finishing at the rim and finding the open man. The Broncs committed 12 turnovers during the course of the matchup and shot only 42.9% from the field in the first half.
Defending the basket was Rider’s biggest weakness, especially down low in the paint, as the Tigers scored 36 of 79 points that way. The Tigers scored 30 of their 36 paint points just in the second half. Holy Family cashed in on Rider’s slow transition to new defense, as the Tigers scored 18 points off fast breaks. Holy Family also saw two of its players score at least 20 points.
In the second half, the Broncs were up 59-49, yet Holy Family tied the game 63-63 after another fastbreak layup.
“This is [Holy Family’s] championship game, and we didn’t play up to their level … and once we gave them confidence, we were in for a game,” Baggett said. “We give those guys credit because they played smarter than we did, and we just defended enough for us to win, but we were poor defensively all night.”
Baggett was not the only one on the Rider sideline who saw right through this performance and identified the defending problem. “On Monday, we are definitely going to come to practice with a sense of urgency, definitely pay attention to things, and [we’ll] watch a lot of film from this game and get better,” Byard said.
Tough road ahead
The Broncs did, however, maintain a few positives from their narrow victory.
In his Bronc debut, Alvarez finished with 13 points, 12 of which came from beyond the arc. Entering this game, Alvarez had zero games where he converted more than one three in his collegiate career.
Byard also shined in his debut, finishing with 17 points, five rebounds, four assists and a steal. Veteran Ingraham led all Broncs in scoring, with 21 points and seven rebounds. Ingraham used his size to reach the free throw stripe quite a few times, knocking down nine of his 13 attempts.
After three years with the program, Ingraham kept it short when describing his career with the Broncs.
“My only job is to dominate and play defense,” Ingraham said.
As a team, the Broncs shot 47.2% from the field and only 72.7% from the free throw stripe. Rider also outscored points in the paint and on the fastbreak.
Rider will need to batten down the hatches in preparation for its short West Coast trip beginning Nov. 4, when they fly out to California to take on nationally ranked UCLA and San Diego State on Nov. 6. The game will be broadcast on FS1 Nov. 4 at 10:30 p.m.
