Rider comes up short in upset bid against Fairfield
ATLANTIC CITY >> Nobody was giving the Rider women’s basketball team a chance to deliver one of the biggest upsets in MAAC Tournament history. Nobody, that is, except itself. Oh how close it was. The Broncs had the top seed in the tournament on the ropes, but ultimately came up short in their bid for an upset after Fairfield made the decisive run in the fourth quarter to escape with a 57-51 victory in the quarterfinals on Wednesday afternoon at Boardwalk Hall.
“It’s whether or not you listen to the outside noise,” said forward Taylor Langan, who finished with 12 points. “The outside noise is saying we shouldn’t be here, we’re not ranked high enough, we can’t beat Fairfield. Within our locker room, within our coaching staff, we just said it’s our mentality. We believe (that) we can win.”
The Stags (29-1) entered the quarterfinal round on a 26game winning streak, had just blasted Rider by 29 points in the regular-season finale and had won the two meetings by an average of 26 points.
Yet there were the Broncs locked in a 40-all game after Jessika Schiffer knocked down a 3-pointer with 7:12 remaining.
“I knew if we could lock in and do our job in the 8-9 game we would get another crack at them,” coach Lynn Milligan said. “It wasn’t like last night I had to rally the troops and be like ‘hey guys I think we could really win.’ That’s not what it’s about. That bus ride home from Fairfield was a long quiet one and we knew what we had to do to come here and perform the way we did.”
Fairfield responded with a decisive 10-0 that corresponded with Rider forward Mariona Cos-Morales going to the bench with her fourth foul. The Spanish forward was one of the best players on the floor on Wednesday with seven points, six rebounds and five steals.
The Broncs (10-21) also switched from man to zone and kept the Stags off balance for good portions of the 40 minutes. Fairfield shot 37.3% and was 4-for-28 from beyond the arc.
Rider answered the 10-0 run with the game’s next six points, but Kaety L’Amoreaux got to the basket for two of her game-high 19 points with 43.7 seconds left to put the Stags back up by six.
“We picked up our intensity and started connecting,” L’Amoreaux said. “With our team, we have so many different people who can step up and I think everyone came together and did that.”
MAAC Player of the Year Janelle Brown finished with 16 points and Rookie of the Year Meghan Andersen added 10 for Fairfield, which faces either fourth-seeded Manhattan or fifth-seeded Canisius in the semifinals.
Despite their long winning streak, the Stags only have a NET ranking of 81 and probably have to secure the automatic bid to make the NCAA Tournament.
“Can they win a game in the (NCAA) Tournament? Absolutely,” Milligan said. “They’ve got the weapons and depth to be able to do that. They’ve got a lot of different scoring options. There aren’t a lot of people who can stay in front of Brown when she’s going downhill.”
Schiffer finished with 11 points for the Broncs, who shot 41.9% and made seven 3s but also turned the ball over 21 times.
“We wanted to win today, so we came with the mentality that we can win,” Langan said. “I met some of my best friends on this team, I met some lifelong mentors in this program and at this university. I’m forever grateful for my experience here and have people who believe in me and have teammates who I can trust is unique in a program.”