Rider escapes with exhibition victory over West Chester
LAWRENCEVILLE >> In need of a basket, Rider went to Tyere Marshall.
The junior center felt the defense playing his left hand, so he countered by going to the middle of the paint and floating up a perfect righthanded shot that gave the Broncs some breathing room in what ended up an 87-81 victory over Division II West Chester in an exhibition game at Alumni Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon.
“In the offseason, I worked on using my right and my left hand,” said Marshall, who finished with 19 points, including that bucket to give Rider an 84-80 lead with 37.5 seconds left. “People want to force me right all the time, so I try to work on it in practice, so that I can be a scorer in the post.”
A 6-9, 240-pounder out of Philadelphia, Marshall has established himself as the Broncs’ best post scorer. He’s coming off a sophomore season in which he averaged 10.3 points and 6.6 rebounds in 22.7 minutes per game.
“Everybody on this team trusts him that if we throw the ball into him more often than not something good is going to happen,” coach Kevin Baggett said. “They tried to pressure us on the perimeter a little bit, which opened up the court and gave Tyere opportunities to catch it down there and go one on one.”
The Broncs, who open the season Tuesday night at AAC favorite Central Florida, really shouldn’t have needed a clutch bucket in the final minute, but they coughed up almost all of a 20-point lead.
West Chester, which went 22-7 last season and is picked to win the PSAC East, closed to within 82-80 on a basket by Frank Rokins with 54 seconds left.
“It’s the lack of maturity I talk about all the time with our team,” Baggett said. “You had two 20-point leads and you give them up. You just want to go out there and BS around. Other teams are going to be good and get back in the game.
“We got two days to grow up and go play Central Florida, which won’t feel sorry for us. They’re certainly going to battle us the same way West Chester did. Give West Chester credit because those guys kept battling and competing. I’m disappointed, but I’m not surprised because this is what’s been showing up in our practices.”
Jordan Allen scored a game-high 22 points and made five of his 11 attempts from beyond the arc. Stevie Jordan scored 14 and Dimencio Vaughn finished with 13 for the Broncs, who shot 52.6 percent (30-for-57).
Malik Jackson tallied 18 points for the Golden Rams.
Two areas of concern were the 17 turnovers and a minus-13 differential on the glass, which included 13 offensive boards for West Chester.
“We got to pay more attention to details,” guard Anthony Durham said. “We got to take care of the ball because even though West Chester was a pretty good team a better team is going to take advantage of that.
“We started out (well) and then we got lackadaisical and undisciplined on defense. When five guys go out, the next five guys have to keep the energy up all across the board.”
Baggett said he’s still figuring out substitution patterns and which rotations work best.
As a result, Rider only got 12 bench points. The talented trio of Ahmad Gilbert, Frederick Scott and Kimar Williams combined to register 10 points on 3-for-15 from the field.
Baggett had his starting lineup — Jordan, Durham, Allen, Vaughn and Marshall — on the floor in the final three minutes until Marshall fouled out and was replaced by Gilbert.
“I didn’t think our bench did a good job today,” Baggett said. “There were a lot of letdowns when we brought them in. I’m trying to figure out substitution patterns at this point. I don’t really care about how close the game was, I’m just trying to help these guys figure out whose roles are going to be where.”
The Broncs shot 54.8 percent (17for-31) from the free throw line. They missed seven of their last eight in the first half, but made nine of their last 12 in the second.
Durham is going to have to get some dental work done before the team leaves for Orlando on Monday after he chipped both of his front teeth diving for a loose ball in the second half.
“Both my teeth chipped at the bottom,” Durham said. “I went to dive for the ball and my face smacked the ground. I knew immediately my teeth ... I thought both of them fell out completely, but they just got chipped.”
“I appreciate him doing that,” Baggett said. “It won’t be the last time he get them knocked out. We’ll get him new teeth.”