COUNTRY WOES
Rider can’t keep pace with West Virginia
It takes discipline to win on the road at West Virginia.
When Rider didn’t have enough of it on Tuesday night, the was a 92-78 setback against the Mountaineers at the WVU Coliseum.
“We didn’t really give ourselves a chance as much as I thought we should have given ourselves a chance,” Broncs coach Kevin Baggett said postgame on 107.7 FM The Bronc. “We just did too many bonehead things. Too many turnovers. We lacked discipline today — on the defensive end, on the offensive end.”
No sequence displayed that more than at the end of the first half when Frederick Scott went to the basket with the shot clock turned off instead of holding for the last shot.
Instead of heading to the locker room down by four or less, WVU used the 11 remaining seconds to hit a 3-pointer and take a seven-point lead into halftime.
“We got to get the ball to Stevie and we have to take the last shot,” Baggett said. “We got to make sure the ball is in the right guy’s hands in order to get to get the guys the shots that we need. We had a play called. That requires discipline, that requires a basketball IQ and understanding time and score. This is the same thing that happened to us at Central Florida where we don’t give ourselves a chance and they get the momentum.”
The Mountaineers (42), who improved to 13556 at the Coliseum under coach Bob Huggins, closed the first half on a 22-8 push after Rider led 28-21.
Scott didn’t have a bad night outside of that possession at the end of the fist half, finishing with 17 points and six rebounds for the Broncs (2-2), who have 10 days off before traveling to Hofstra.
Stevie Jordan added 13 points, while Dimencio Vaughn and Jordan Allen had 11 each.
Lamont West scored a career-high 20 points and Esa Ahmad had 16 for WVU, which led by 19 midway through the second half.
Battered on the Boards
The Mountaineers grabbed 20 offensive rebounds that led to 23 second-chance points. In total, they out-rebounded the Broncs by ten (46-36).
“We got crushed on the boards,” Baggett said. “The got 20 offensive rebounds and you got to be disciplined. You got to block out. Those are some of the things that hurt us.”
West Virginia did all that damage without 6-8, 250-pound All-Big XII forward Sagaba Konate, who sat out the game.
Getting Technical
Rider was whistled for four technical fouls, while WVU had one.
Presley Promoted
Dino Presley was promoted to associated head coach prior to Wednesday night’s game, Baggett announced. Presley is in his fourth year at Rider and was on a staff together with Baggett when both were assistants at UMBC.