Riverside tops US, improves to 14-3

Riverside’s halftime lead shrank to a single point in nonconference clash with University on Feb. 4. Then the Preppers started the final frame strong and took a six-point lead.

But the Beavers battled back with Charlie Fox running the offense down the stretch and Andrew Taggart drew trip after trip to the line. That gave the Beavers the lead back, and they pulled away late.

The Beavers downed the Preppers, 76-66, for their fourth win in a row.

Deadlocked at 17-17 at the end of the first quarter, Riverside (14-3) slammed its foot on the gas in the second. Fueled by Peyton Burnett and his four 3s in the quarter, the Beavers amassed an eight-point lead at the break.

While Burnett lit the spark, Brady McKnight kept it lit as he had rebound after rebound down the stretch. Coach Matt Grendel has seen them step up into big moments before, and the game against the Preppers was no exception.

“The second quarter Peyton provided some much-needed offense for us,” Grendel said. “It was big for us. Brady does all the things that are important for winning that don’t show up in the box score. He battles for offensive rebounds, gets deflections, just always competing. He’s not the biggest guy on the court but his effort makes up for any size disadvantages. His effort was what got us the win.”

While Fox did have a hand in the Beavers getting the lead back, it was his ball handling that played a critical role late. His assists to Austin Lee in the post and Jake Elly on the corner allowed for the lead to grow to a comfortable margin.

He also added 17 points to help the offensive output.

Fox is no stranger to handling the scoring load, as the game before he posted 30 points against Kenston. But he is just as happy distributing the ball as he is scoring.

“I’ve known all season that I’m surrounded by great teammates,” Fox said. “If I drive in and get help and see any of them open, I’m kicking it to them every time because I know they’re going to knock it down. We all have that trust in each other and know that we’re going to make that shot.”

He was joined in double figures by Taggart (17 points) and Burnett (15).

Even with the strong early shooting and ball movement, the Beavers started slow in both the first and third quarters. The Preppers saw Justin Belcher find his shot with 10 third-quarter points that trimmed the deficit to one.

The Preppers carried that momentum into the start of the fourth as they made it a six-point deficit. Grendel called an early timeout for the Beavers to get back to what got them the lead to start.

“The message was we just needed to continue to fight on defense,” Grendel said. “We needed to make every shot for University because they are a really good shooting team. Offensively, we got a little stagnant. We weren’t moving the ball as well, we weren’t getting stops on defense and once we got back to that, we started to get things back to how we started the game.”

While Riverside built up a lead in the second, University (10-8) was able to stick around in large part due to the early shooting success from Alec Cogdon. He had five first-half 3s as he led the way for the Preppers scorers with 20 points and Belcher was just behind with 18.