Jan. 29, 2012

Final Stats

Rider placed five players in double figures and got 41 points from its bench in an 83-72 win over Siena in Lawrenceville Sunday. The Saints fall to 0-5 on the road in league games.

"Unfortunately, we can't play all our games at Times Union Center," Siena star OD Anosike said after the game. "If we want to move up in the conference standings, we need to figure out how to win on the road."

And the Saints need to do it quickly.

Siena (10-11/5-6) plays five of its final seven games on the road after Friday night's Gold Rush game against Saint Peter's at Times Union Center.

Anosike led all players with 22 points and 16 rebounds. It marked his 17th straight double-double, tying Tim Duncan for the second most in all of Division I in the last 15 years.

Rider (9-14/6-5) jumped on Siena early, leading 9-2, 11-3 and 20-8. The Saints cut the lead to 35-28 at the break, and then caught fire at the start of the second half.

Siena scored 16 of the first 22 points after intermission, a rally capped by two threes from Evan Hymes. The result was a 43-41 Siena lead with 15:38 to play. The lead was 50-45 with 12:49 left when Rider ran off six straight points on threes from Novar Gadson and Jeff Jones to take the least back. The Saints led for the last time, 57-56, on an Anosike dunk with 8:28 left.

The Broncs used a 9-2 run to break open a one point game late, taking a 69-61 lead with 3:36 remaining, and Siena got no closer than five the rest of the way.

Brandon Walters scored a career-high 15 points for the Saints, besting the 14 he scored in Siena's 83-79 win in Albany when these teams met earlier this month. Hymes was the only other Saint in double figures, scoring 15 of his 17 points on 3-pointers.

Jones had five threes for Rider, three coming in the last 10:32. He led the Broncs with 18 points off the bench. Anthony Miles (13), Brandon Penn (12), Novar Gadson (11) and Junior Fortunat (10) each reached double figures. Rider won its third straight game (all at home) after losing three straight contests (all on the road).

The Broncs made 11-20 3-pointers, a huge key to their win.

"I thought the threes they made killed us," Siena head coach Mitch Buonaguro said. "Other than that, it was a hell of a game."

It marked the third consecutive road MAAC game Siena led in the second half before being out-scored badly in the final moments.