Rider Basketball: Broncs keep MAAC title hopes alive with Monmouth win

Rider basketball kept their quest for a second consecutive MAAC regular season title alive by downing rival Monmouth 81-72 on Friday, ending a five-game losing streak

“What happened this time?” Rider’s associate athletic director Brian Keane asked DiMenico Vaugh in the locker room ahead of Rider basketball’s big showdown with Monmouth on Friday. The forward’s thumb was held stiff by a generous amount of black pre-wrap. It happened a few weeks ago against Iona, he told us. “Good thing it’s not your left hand” Keane said, before Vaughn immediately reminded him that he likes to go right sometimes. He came up and gave us fist-bumps with his healthy hand before returning to his locker.

But Vaughn’s hand didn’t stop him from hitting his season average of 11 points. It didn’t stop him from grabbing a few rebounds, adding three of Rider’s 18 assists. It didn’t stop him from being a major story line in Rider’s huge win over their cross-state rival Monmouth.

His effort helped Rider end its five-game losing streak, a massive skid for a team that returned every major contributor from last year’s 15-3 squad that earned a sixth seed in the NIT, and was chosen unanimously to finish atop the MAAC in the preseason. But, as Brian reminded me, it was still a young team. They were led by a core of freshmen and sophomore Stevie Jordan a season ago, and confidence is an easy thing to shake for most 19, 20 year-olds. Some years, things feel easier, he told me. This wasn’t one of them. The heartbreaking losses had somehow become routine for a team that before seemed to pull off miracle after miracle just as regularly.

When the season began, Rider and Monmouth, two schools roughly separated by I-195’s stretch of 34 miles, seemed to be trending in opposite directions; while Rider was returning a core that seemed destined to get the Broncs back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since winning the NEC in 1994, Monmouth was struck a blow with the departure of leading scorer Micah Seaborn. And while Kevin Baggett was probably disappointed his team didn’t manage to grab a victory in a few chances against high-major opponents this non-conference season, they were having a much easier go than their rivals at the Shore, who didn’t win their first game until topping a shorthanded Penn team on New Year’s Eve.

But coming into Friday night’s clash in Lawrenceville, the script had flipped entirely. It was Monmouth with a 9-4 MAAC record sitting in first place, and after a 7-1 start to the league season, Rider was 7-6, two games back from the top of the league. One of those six losses came at the hands of the Hawks by four points in early February in West Long Branch. You just needed a few good guards in this league, Brian told me, and Monmouth had just that. Two-tme MAAC coach of the year King Rice was probably going to find a way to put it together come league play.

The Broncs were ready on Friday, Brian assured me. But I didn’t need his word. It was clear from the loose confidence in the locker room, from Stevie Jordan warming up alone on the game court two hours before tip, from the expression on Kevin Baggett’s face as he stormed through the lobby of Alumni Gym earlier in the afternoon. The thought of losing that game didn’t seem to occur to anyone, not even to me spending just twenty minutes around some of the players and staff before the game.

And if anyone on either side somehow needed help getting up for this one, the electric atmosphere that was building up well before tip probably did it. If Alumni Gym wasn’t filled to capacity, it was close to it; cramped fans on both sides of the court took to sitting on the steps in between sections. The low ceiling boomed the chants of the student section and the roar from the crowd, the intimate setting giving fans in the back row a clear voice to the court. The traveling Monmouth fans, which numbered in the low hundreds in the gym that holds 1,650, created an even rowdier environment; cheers and boos came with every made basket, every blow of the whistle, accompanied every player to the free-throw line. It was a Big 5-like atmosphere.

The game went just about how anyone that wasn’t looking through navy-colored glasses could’ve expected. It wasn’t a blowout. Monmouth made a few runs, gave their fans something to cheer about. It was within striking distance for the Hawks up until the final minutes. Rider didn’t trail once, opening the game on a 7-0 run, but they also couldn’t put Monmouth away until late. The Hawks mostly stayed within two or three possessions, but any time they trimmed the lead any more than that, Rider would get a few stops and bring the score back to a comfortable margin.

Frederick Scott led the scoring effort with 21 for Rider in an 81-72 win. Tyere Marshall had a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds, and point guard Stevie Jordan scored 15, added six assists and four steals in a game-high 37 minutes. Ray Salnave had 17 for Monmouth off the bench, and Diago Quinn had a double-double of his own with 11 points and 12 rebounds.

It’s been an imperfect year for the MAAC. After two teams earned 15-3 records a year ago, now-first place Canisius sits alone atop the standings at 9-4 with five games to play. But a year filled with surprises and disappointments has created an exciting logjam atop of the league’s standings. Now with most teams having four or five games left on the schedule, six of the conference’s eleven teams are within a game and a half of first place.

The loss knocks Monmouth a half game out of first, and keeps Rider firmly in the hunt for a second consecutive championship. And while the Broncs need to hurdle four teams to reclaim that top spot, three of their four remaining games are against teams with little to no realistic chance at winning the title. Their lone remaining game against a MAAC contender is a home contest against an Iona team with an identical 8-6 record. Unless either loses before then, it will be a massive game for both sides.

It will be an uphill battle for Rider to get back to the top of the league, and, unfortunately, they don’t control their own destiny. Even if they finish the season undefeated, they’ll be doing a lot of scoreboard watching as February winds down. But thankfully for the Broncs, this is mid-major basketball. This is a one bid league where not much, besides a potential NCAA Tournament seed, an automatic NIT bid, and a banner in the rafters matters before the conference tournament.

Everyone in the MAAC is still in the hunt for the conference’s only invitation to the Tournament, and I don’t think many people will be betting against Rider on a neutral court against their league opponents come March.