CNBNews

Men’s College Basketball

LAWRENCEVILLE—Senior Jason Thompson (Mt. Laurel/Lenape) compiled 20 points, nine rebounds and seven blocked shots, and freshman Mike Ringgold (Philadelphia, PA/Roman Catholic) scored a career-high 17 points to lead Rider to victory over Fairleigh Dickinson Monday evening. “We looked like we had a lot of talent tonight,” said Rider head coach Tommy Dempsey.

Holding a 60-52 lead, Rider (2-1) went on a 16-1 run as sophomore Ryan Thompson (Mt. Laurel/Lenape) scored 11 consecutive points to give Rider a 76-53 lead with 6:10 left to play. Ryan Thompson finished with 15 points, eight rebounds and five assists. “I just took the shots that came to me,” Ryan Thompson said. “When they double Jason I line up outside and got into a flow. I kept shooting the ball and it kept falling.”

Ryan Thompson made six of eight shots from the field, including three of four from three-point range.

Holding a 51-47 lead with 12 minutes remaining, Rider out-scored FDU 9-2, seven points by Jason Thompson, to take a 60-49 lead with 9:20 left to play. “We started to turn the intensity up with our defense and I think the pressure had an effect on them,” Dempsey said. “We have a team that is built to press and run. You still have to focus on being a good half court offense but ultimately we like to run.”

FDU committed 21 turnovers to Rider’s 13.

Ringgold scored Rider’s first six points of the game as the Broncs jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the first two minutes. “Mike got us off to a great start,” Dempsey said. “They were doubling Jason early so Mike did a great job as a cutter and got himself some easy baskets. He really gave the building a lot of energy. The entire team came out with great energy.”

“In the beginning of the game Jason did a nice job of finding me,” Ringgold said. “I was just playing my role.”  Jason Thompson finished with four assists.

Trailing 37-36, Rider went on a 8-0 run, five points by Jason Thompson, including a three-point field goal, to take a 44-37 lead with 16 minutes left to play. Sixteen of Jason Thompson’s points came in the seconds half. “In the first half they were double teaming me so I tried to pass more,” Jason Thompson said. “Mike made some nice cuts to the basket and scored for us. He gave us a good spark. In the second half they played me one on one so I started going to the hole.”

With the score tied at 24-24, Rider went on a 7-1 run, four points by Jason Thompson, to take a 31-25 lead, and Rider led 36-31 at the half.

Junior Lamar Johnson (Scranton, PA/Scranton) came in off the bench to make three three-point field goals, finishing with 11 points. Junior Harris Mansell (Cheltenham, PA/Cheltenham) added 10 points as five Broncs reached double figures in scoring. “Just a good team effort with five guys in double figures,” Dempsey said. “When we can get the ball moving up and down the court like that everybody gets opportunities.”

For FDU (1-3), senior guard Manny Ubilla scored a game-high 28 points and Sean Baptiste added 17 points and 11 rebounds.

The Broncs and Knights have now met 49 times since the series began in 1952-53, with Rider holding a slight 25-24 advantage in the series.

The victory marks the second consecutive year that Rider (2-1) has won its first two home games of the season.

Jason Thompson now has 1,402 points, ninth highest ever at Rider, and 795 rebounds, fourth highest ever at Rider. Thompson is the only Bronc to rank among both the top 10 career scorers and the top five career rebounders at Rider.

The Broncs will now travel to Disney’s Wide World of  Sports Complex in Florida to take part in the Old Spice Classic November 22, 23 and 25. Rider takes on 21^st ranked North Carolina State Thanksgiving Day at 2pm on ESPN2. “I was proud of how we stayed focused with what we have ahead of us,” Dempsey said. “It would have been easy to look ahead to playing an ACC team on national television in Florida, but we respected FDU and concentrated on this game.”

“This is really big coming up and I’m looking at it as a learning experience,” Ringgold said, “but at the same time we want to win. We know everybody is going to be watching. We’ll play hard and give it our all.”

“We’re going down there and looking for some respect for our program,” Dempsey said. “You only have so many opportunities to go and earn respect for your program and we have three opportunities this coming week. We want to go down there and play with a lot of energy and compete well. We want to represent our university and our league.”

“This is great for our program,” Jason Thompson said, “the opportunity to show what we can do.”

-RU-