Nov. 28, 2007

Box Score

LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ - Rider's Thompson brothers, senior Jason and sophomore Ryan, combined for 37 points and 23 rebounds, leading the Broncs to an 84-58 win over visiting NJIT in Wednesday night men's basketball action.

Jason, the mobile 6-foot-11 preseason Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Player of the Year, filled the box score with 17 points, 17 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 blocked shots. And the 17 points were earned against a strong defensive effort by NJIT's sophomore center Dan Stonkus.

Ryan, the 6-foot-6 swingman, led all scorers with 20 points and added six rebounds, along with a pair of assists. Junior guard Harris Mansell added 15 points for Rider.

NJIT, which stayed in contention for the first 29 of the game's 40 minutes before appearing to run out of gas, got a team-leading 14 points from junior forward Nesho Milosevic and a career-high 13 from freshman guard Justin Garris.

Facing a steady diet of full court pressure defense, the Highlanders committed a season-low 13 turnovers, but the physical demands of breaking the press may have taken a toll as the game wore on.

Trailing by nine points at halftime, 33-24, the Highlanders stayed fairly close well into the second half and trailed, 49-41, when Garris made a three-point basket with 13:14 left.

The Highlanders trailed by 12 at the 12-minute media timeout, but they scored on a layup by Milosevic to make it 53-43 with 11:22 left.

NJIT would get no closer and a pivotal play in the game came 1:18 later. Rider had stretched its lead to seconds after the Milosevic bucket. With just over 10 minutes left, Kamron Warner missed a layup attempt, but Jason Thompson scored on a put-back and was fouled on the play by Milosevic with 10:04 left.

It was the fourth foul for Milosevic, who headed to the bench before Thompson converted the three-point play for a 58-43 Rider lead.

Less than two minutes after Milosevic, NJIT's most effective offensive player for the night, had to sit with four fouls, Stonkus, the defensive stalwart, picked up his fourth foul and sat down at the 8:10 mark. Jason Thompson then hit one of two free throws to push Rider into a 16-point lead.

Once its deficit got into the high teens, NJIT began to take quick shots on too many of its offensive possessions, allowing the tempo increase, which was better suited to the more explosive Broncs. On the defensive end, NJIT allowed open looks that hadn't been there earlier.

One of the results of the defensive slippage was that Rider, which made five three-pointers through the first 34:36, poured on three more three-pointers from the 5:24 mark to the 3:08 mark--a span of just 2:16.

The end result was that Rider outscored the Highlanders, 31-15, over the final 11:04 to blow open what had been a more competitive game.

The first half was played at a pace more suited to NJIT and the score at halftime was 33-24 for Rider.

With his brother, Jason, limited to seven first-half points on 3-for-8 shooting against the strong positional defense of NJIT's Stonkus, Ryan Thompson came to the rescue with 13 points, shooting 4-for-5 from the field and 5-for-7 at the foul line. Despite Jason's relatively quiet first half, the Thompson brothers still accounted for 20 of their team's 33 first-half points.

NJIT had balanced offensive numbers at halftime, as all five starters had at least four points, paced by senior captain Kraig Peters, with six points.

The Highlanders, who never led, fell into an early 13-5 hole and later trailed, 17-7, with 10:59 left. But NJIT came back and closed to within four, 21-17, on a Peters trey with 4:39 left in the half.

The Highlanders still trailed by five, 26-21, on a pair of free throws from Stonkus at 2:44, before falling back by nine at the break.

NJIT, with three games in the last five days, will be in action again on Saturday at noon, when the Highlanders visit the University of Maine.