
Rider’s weekend road trip ends losing streak
By Kadie DiGiuseppe
Amid its four-game losing streak, Rider women’s basketball took down a fan-favorite rival, the Saint Peter’s Peacocks, 57-52 on Jan. 30 weekend, before finishing its weekend with a nail-biting, 65-63 win over the Merrimack Warriors on Feb. 1. The Broncs improved to 5-15 on the season.
“We are starting to see some of the things we have been working on as well as the growth we have been talking about. We are starting to see that carry over for long spurts on gameday,” said Head Coach Lynn Milligan.
Peacock pressure
Senior guard Gabby Turco and freshman guard Camryn Collins started the game with back-to-back 3-pointers.
The Peacocks tied things up but senior guard Mariona Cos-Morales replied with three points after.
Cos-Morales’ scoring fueled a 6-0 run in the Peacocks before junior forward Emilee Tahata obtained her first points.
Freshman forward Winner Bartholomew finished off the quarter for the Broncs offense with her three points, but Rider trailed 19-16 at the end of the quarter.
Sophomore guard Aliya McIver and freshman guard Emmy Roach added four points combined but the Broncs trailed by five at the end of the first half.
Trailing by seven, Rider put together an 8-0 run until the next four minutes were quiet on both sides of the court.
Collins extended the Broncs lead with her six points in the following quarter.
After that, Collins finished things off for the Broncs at the free throw line, allowing Rider to work the score up to 57-52.
Turco led the Broncs with 16 points including four 3-pointers while Collins had 13 of her own along with seven points from Tahata.
“Everybody comes into our games thinking that they are just going to beat us,” said Tahata. “Coach said that this is our ‘revenge tour’ and that it doesn’t matter what anyone else says. We just played our game.”
The Broncs turned the ball over 21 times while the Peacocks went 3-22 from beyond the arc.
Closing the gap
Rider traveled to North Andover, Massachusetts to take on one of the newest Metro Atlantic Conference opponents, Merrimack.
Rider trailed by six to start the game until Cos-Morales and Tahata went on their own 6-0 run to tie the score up early.
Down by three, Turco hit her first 3-pointer of the game and after a timeout was called, Collins drained a layup to take the lead.
However, the Broncs saw that lead slip away further into the quarter as the Warriors put together a 7-0 run.
Both teams went back and forth the rest of the quarter, finishing things off in Merrimack’s favor, 19-18.
Senior guard Sanaa Redmond opened the second quarter with a layup which started Rider’s 10-1 run.
The Warriors made two layups in a row after the timeout and cut the Bronc lead down to four. Turco, Redmond and Collins worked the lead back up to seven.
Tahata finished off the first half with a layup, bringing the score to 37-28.
Merrimack started the second half with a 4-0 run only to be stopped by a 3-pointer by McIver. Cos-Morales’ layup after that put Rider in front by 10.
The Broncs ended the third up by 10 with scoring contributions from Tahata, Collins, Roach and McIver.
Collins started the last 10 minutes with a 3-pointer but was answered by a 9-0 Warriors run.
With less than two minutes left, the Warriors tied things at 61 all until they retook the lead with 45 seconds left.
Cos-Morales’ jumper caused Merrimack to call a timeout. After the break, the Broncs forced a clutch turnover where Tahata laid in the game winning bucket with three seconds left.
Collins led the team in scoring with 15 points while Tahata and Turco combined for 25. The Broncs won the turnover battle 22-18.
“As February is just starting and we are getting toward the end of our schedule, we’ve been looking to make sure we don’t have any more slip ups,” said Turco. “We’ve also been looking to string two or even one wins here to just get back on track.”
With the two wins, the Broncs sit at one game below the 10th seed in the MAAC.
Rider will return to Alumni Gym on Feb. 6 at 6 p.m. to take on Sacred Heart before hitting the road again to play Siena on Feb. 8 at 2 p.m. Both games will be streamed on ESPN+.