Rider makes McCann its own Monday night

With students on winter break and a 1-14 Marist Red Foxes team enduring a historically bad season, Rider got out of its slump in a big way.
Rider exploded offensively, leading by 33 points before Tommy Dempsey pulled his starters. Rider cruised to an 84-62 win.
Rider never trailed and the closest Marist came was after Korey Bauer finished a fake-shot/pass from Devin Price to cut the Broncs' lead to 23-19. Rider embarked on a 17-0 run capped off by a Jhamar Youngblood three-pointer.
Youngblood, the Monmouth transfer, scored 17 points in filling in for the injured Novar Gadson. Ryan Thompson returned to top-form by scoring a game-high 21 points on 8-of-15 shooting. Patrick Mansell and Mike Ringgold notched 11 points apiece.
The positives for Marist were few and far between. The team has regressed since an upset win over MAAC foe Manhattan. Devin Price, Candon Rusin, and Rob Johnson scored 11 points each. Price did add nine assists, however.
Rider shot 54.2 percent and would have scored over 100 points had Dempsey not pulled his starters.
The frustration started to boil over in the first half. Mike Taylor, right off the bench for Chuck Martin, picked up a technical foul after he was whistled for a personal foul. This followed Rider's 14-0 run ended by Bauer.
Bauer, the lone big man, scored nine points and hauled in six rebounds.
Observations:
- A surprising loss considering Martin seemed enthused about his team's recent practices. Rider was also at a season low. The Broncs lost by 20 points to Iona in their last outing...at home. Novar Gadson, arguably Rider's second-best player, also did not play with an injured ankle.
- Out of a possible 349 Div. I teams, Marist is ranked No. 345 in the RPI poll.
- At this point, coaches and fans need to be looking for positives going forward. Although the team is in a precarious position due to paperwork issues with David Devezin and Menelik Watson, and Casiem Drummond's ineligibility, there needs to be more fight than what was shown tonight. This game was never close and Rider was on a first-half pace for 100 points.
- Again, hard to find any positives, but Devin Price will be a great MAAC point guard. He's improved drastically after a rough opening to the season. Nine assists tonight is pretty impressive since the team only converted 24 baskets. Since he went 4-of-9 from the field, he accounted for 13-of-24 Marist baskets. Glad to see Martin gave him 34 minutes tonight.
- Daye Kaba managed only five points tonight on 2-of-5 shooting. Considering he played at Boston College and is one of the more senior players on this squad, his season thus far has been disappointing.
- Finally, Marist is obviously missing strong veteran players. Ryan Schneider's value to this team last year grows by leaps and bounds. He was a true team-player and played great fundamental basketball. His leadership is sorely missed. The same could be said of Kaylen Gregory. While he didn't play much of a factor in his time at Marist, he shined in the opportunity Martin gave him. The Red Foxes, in addition to being young, don't have players like Schneider, Devezin, and Gregory to look up to. Whether by action or words, they showed the younger guys how to play the right way. That lacking presence is a big reason why Marist is struggling. There are older players on the roster, but they don't have the leadership qualities those three had.