Broncs looking to great guard depth for successful season
LAWRENCEVILLE >> If you win with guard play, then Rider women’s basketball coach Lynn Milligan likes what she’s got ahead of a season with heightened expectations.
The Broncs return both starters along with a key transfer to a unit that may be among the best in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
“We’ve made a jump over these last four years,” said Milligan, whose team was picked fourth in the league’s preseason poll. “We’ve been fortunate enough to have some really terrific young ladies buy into that culture and I think we’re seeing some positive results of that over the last couple years. It’s a little bit different for us to be in the pattern of being at the top of the league. We like it there, obviously, but talk to me in March and I’ll be happier.”
It all starts in the backcourt where Rider lines up senior point guard Leix Posset next to junior Stella Johnson. Posset averaged 9.8 points and 3.3 assists, while Johnson led the team in scoring at 16 points and shot 40 percent from beyond the arc.
“When you have (a senior point guard), it gives you a sense of calm,” Milligan said. “She has a high level of confidence in her game and her and I are on the same page as far as what we want, why we do certain things, why we call certain plays, who we feel like needs to get touches and where. She’s very keen on her teammates’ strengths and weaknesses and how she can put them in successful spots.”
Johnson has gone from an unknown who surprised people as a freshman to the front of the opposition’s scouting report.
“She’s one of the hardest working kids we’ve ever had,” Milligan said. “She’s a gym rat and when your proverbial best player is your hardest worker, good things can happen. She’s confident in her abilities and I think she’s taken another step physically and mentally now being an upperclassman and one of our captains. She’s very comfortable talking to her teammates where in the past she was kind of that quiet assassin where she just did her job. Now she has to do her job at another level and oh by the way help lead the team.”
It may very well be the Johnson and Johnson show. The Broncs add Rhode Island transfer Amari Johnson to the mix after she sat out last season. Milligan called her one of the most athletic players Rider has ever had (think Robin Perkins like) and she came off the bench to score 20 points in 19 minutes against Division III TCNJ in an exhibition.
“She’s long, she’s lean, she covers ground and she can score,” Milligan said. “She’s going to take some pressure off of Stella because you’re going to have two wings you have to figure out how to guard at the same time. But oh by the way Posset is going to hit 3s if you don’t guard her, (Lexi) Stover is going to hit 3s if you don’t guard her.”
Rider got off to an 0-6 start last season, something Milligan has stressed to her group before tipping off against Princeton on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Alumni Gymnasium (ESPN3). While the Tigers won’t have Ivy League Player of the Year Bella Alarie (broken arm) available, Milligan is still expecting a tough game.
The Broncs won the last meeting, 70-62, at Jadwin in 2016 to snap a sevengame losing streak in the series. The Tigers lead the all-time series, 24-9.
“(Princeton coach) Courtney (Banghart) and I talk about it all the time that it doesn’t make senses for us not to play,” Milligan said. “It’s two great Division I programs within five miles of each other. We should be playing and I’m excited that we are. I’m glad we’re playing them at home this year.”