Jan. 29, 2003

Box Score

Poughkeepsie, NY - The Marist College men's basketball team dropped its third straight game, falling 73-60 to Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) foe Rider this evening at the McCann Center. The Red Foxes fall to 7-11 overall on the year and 3-6 in MAAC play, while the Broncs improve to 7-11 on the year and 2-7 in conference play.

The Red Foxes opened the game in an offensive slump, as Rider held a 27-5 lead with 4:51 left in the first half. The Red Foxes hit 5-10 from the field in the final minutes of the opening half to cut the lead to as few as 11 points, and trailed 32-30 at the intermission. The Red Foxes cut the lead to just eight points in the second half, 45-37 with 12:59 remaining, but could not get any closer. The lead would balloon to as much as 15 points down the stretch, and Marist got back to within nine points, 61-52 with 3:40 left in the contest.

Robert Taylor led the way for Rider withy 22 points and seven rebounds, while Jerry Johnson added 15 points and five assists, Edwin Muniz had 12 points and Laurence Young added 10 points and seven boards in the win.

Carl Hood (Houston, TX) scored a career-high 13 points in 26 minutes for the Red Foxes, as well as pulling down six boards. Sophomore Brandon Ellerbee (Plano, TX) connected on a career-high five three-pointers on his way to 15 points in the effort. David Bennett (Salt Lake City, UT) scored eight points and had a team-high five assists, an assist total equaled by Eric Siegrist (Poughkeepsie, NY).

Rider shot 49.2 (29-59) percent for the game, including a blazing 64 (16-25) percent from the floor in the second half. Marist shot just 34.3 (23-67) from the floor, and 7-30 (23.3 percent) from behind the line. IN the first half the Red Foxes shot 24.1 (7-29) percent, and were as low as 10.5 percent from the floor.

Marist takes to the road on February 1st, for a 1:00 pm versus Siena, to be played at the Pepsi Arena in Albany, NY.