Lackluster defense costs Rider in loss at Drexel
PHILADELPHIA » Kevin Baggett sensed this result was coming.
Not because Rider isn’t as good as Drexel, that’s far from the case, but because of what he saw in practice.
Sure enough: Drexel 89, Rider 77 on Saturday afternoon as the Daskalakis Athletic Center.
“Our guys had a little bit of success and they thought they arrived,” the sixth-year coach said. “That happens with a young group when they have a little bit of success and don’t know how to handle it. I said to them (Friday) in practice I would not be surprised if we lost.”
The Broncs (5-3) dropped their second straight following a four-game winning streak, which only ended earlier this week after they pushed Providence to the brink in what was eventually a four-point loss.
Rider held a two-point halftime lead after it rallied from a miserable start, but the Dragons (4-4) won the second half by 14 and held one of the best second-half teams in the country — the Broncs ranked fourth nationally with 48.4 secondhalf points per game — to 36.
Drexel’s Tramaine Isabell poured in 22 of his careerhigh 35 points in the second half, while Sammy Mojica also notched a career-best 22.
“We felt pretty good (at halftime), but how we felt didn’t matter, because when went out there, we still didn’t execute on defense,” sophomore forward Tyere Marshall said. “We were still turning the ball over. We have to learn from this and move on.”
That’s exactly what needs to happen now that a dose of reality has been served.
“I said to them in the locker room maybe now I can get your attention,” Baggett said. “I’ve been doing this 22 years and I knew this was coming, and we needed it. It’s something with a young group that they have to go through and understand that the biggest respect you can give to your opponent is to prepare the right way for your opponent.”
Marshall paced the Broncs with 23 points and 12 rebounds for his third double-double of the season. The Philadelphia native, he played his high school ball at Martin Luther King, was 10for-11 in the second half and scored 20 of his career-best output in the period.
We were supposed to win this game,” Marshall said. “It’s my hometown, so it’s tough for me. We just got to figure this out.”
Marshall had eight of Rider’s 11 points during a run that chopped the deficit from 10 to a single bucket, but Isabell beat his man off the dribble on Drexel’s next possession and kicked out to a wide open Alihan Demir for a corner 3-pointer.
“I told him in the timeout to shoot the ball,” said Isabell, a transfer from Missouri, who now has a pair of 30-point games. “That’s why we brought him here to be a stretch four. … He was so open, he had to shoot it. That was the dagger.”
Isabell converted a layup to make it a seven-point game on the Dragons’ next trip and after Frederick Scott split a pair of free throws, Mojica nailed a corner 3 after Stevie Jordan had a steal slip through his fingers.
Dimencio Vaughn gave the Broncs 20 points in 24 minutes off the bench with 16 of those coming in the first half.
But the dynamic Jordan backcourt combined for 19 points on 7-for-20 one game after they teamed up for 47 at Providence.
Yet Rider still shot 47.5 percent and scored 77 points. It’s the other side where players need to buy in.
“I’m used to team’s defending,” Baggett said. “This group hasn’t bought into that totally, and they got to buy into it in order for us to be good. We can score the ball. We scored 77 points, but we gave up 89. That’s not acceptable. You’re not going to win a lot of games.”
Will they buy in?
“If they don’t, we’ll continue to lose,” Baggett said. “I trust this group that we’ll get them going again and get back to the winning ways.”