Rider lets lead slip, falls to Monmouth in OT
The Rider men’s basketball team had every opportunity to knock off Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference-title chasing Monmouth in the first game of their series to conclude the regular season.
Instead, the Broncs melted down at the end of regulation and then let another lead slip away in overtime
George Papas hit a 3-pointer from the left wing with 26.5 seconds remaining after Rider failed to secure a defensive rebound and the Hawks kept their regular-season title hopes alive with a come-from-behind, 77-74, victory over the Broncs on Thursday afternoon.
Rider still had a chance to win or force a second overtime, but a muddled possession resulted in a long Allen Powell 3-pointer that came up short and the Hawks made one of two free throws to make up the final margin.
“It is not the shot I wanted,” coach Kevin Baggett said. “I wanted (Dwight Murray) to have the ball there, but that didn’t happen.”
Baggett, as he’s done throughout his career, opted against calling a timeout on the final possession to prevent Monmouth from setting up its defense.
Murray, who scored a team-high 21 points, said the Hawks did a good job of front-guarding him and then trapping to force the ball away form him.
“We have to do the little things that coach preaches to us all the time,” Murray said. “At this point, it’s not even coach, it’s us playing. We got to start listening to him. He’s giving us all the little keys to how we should play the game, but at the end of the day, he can only say so much. We got to start the little things out there. We’re doing all the other stuff, but it’s always the end. Three minutes left in the (half) and we always start messing up, so we have to get that right.”
The Broncs (5-15, 5-12) led by nine with 3:13 remaining, but then turned the ball over four times in the last two minutes as Monmouth stormed back to force the extra five-minute session. Rider could have also won it at the end of regulation, but Christian Ings missed a short shot in the lane.
The Broncs had 18 turnovers, which led to 18 Monmouth points.
“We knew what they were going to do, we just didn’t get it done,” Baggett said. “It’s a matter of not dribbling around, over dribbling, passing and cutting hard, getting open, back cutting. It’s things we work on in practice and don’t carry it over to the game at times.”
Melik Martin scored a game-high 24 points for the Hawks (11-7, 11-6). Papas finished with 17 and Deion Hammond had 14. Papas and Hammond combined for five points on 2-for-7 shooting in the first half as Monmouth looked lethargic coming off a 12-day COVID pause.