Rider drops non-league finale to VCU
Rider closed the book on non-conference play the same way it started it.
With a frustrating loss to a very good opponent.
The road-weary Broncs found themselves facing a huge first-half deficit and fell to a sizzling VCU, 90-79, on Sunday afternoon at the Siegel Center in Richmond.
The Rams entered play shooting a woeful 27.2 percent from beyond the arc, but snapped out of that season-long funk for one day at least. They connected on 48 percent of their attempts and finished with a seasonhigh 14.
“We battled and cut it back to (13) and every time I thought we were getting back in the game they would hit two 3s back to back, which ended up setting us back agains and breaking our momentum,” Rider coach Kevin Baggett said in his postgame radio interview. “I thought certain guys on our team showed me a little bit more of who they are. … We got to defend better because we’re giving up way too many points. Guys got to commit to that side of it. I’m like a broken record because we can score points, but we got to be able to get stops.”
The Broncs (5-7) trailed by as many as 26 late in the first half, but twice it cut to 13 before the Rams (9-4) answered with back-breaking triples.
Six different VCU players connected from behind the arc, led by Malik Crawford (12 points) with four. Mike’L Simms paced the Rams with a game-high 15 points.
Jordan Allen, Ahmad Gilbert, Stevie Jordan and Kimar Williams alls tallied 12 points for Rider.
Williams, in particular, was a bright spot, hitting on six of his nine attempts with four assists and just one turnover in 34 minutes.
“I called him over during the game and told him I was proud of him what he was getting done,” Baggett said. “I told him to keep competing. That’s the Kimar Williams we needed to see early and we’re finally starting to see him evolve into what we thought he would be for our team.”
Rider committed 11 of its 14 turnovers in the first half, which aided VCU in building its huge lead. The Broncs ended up shooting a respectable 47.6 percent and grabbed 12 offensive rebounds for 17 secondchance points.
Vaughn Out
Forward Dimencio Vaughn missed his second straight game with a right ankle injury. He’s expected to remain sidelined through the start of MAAC play.
Frederick Scott started in his place and scored 11 points.
Jordan, meanwhile, returned from a one-game hiatus and posted 12 points, seven assists and six rebounds in 32 minutes off the bench.
Up Next
The Broncs complete a six-game road trip that takes them up over 9,000 miles when they begin MAAC play at Fairfield.
“We’ve had too many distractions, too many things going on and now we got to get locked in (because) we’re 0-0 in the conference,” Baggett said. “We got to hope that these games and this schedule will pay off at the end of the year for us.”