Broncs lose fourth and fifth straight games

By Kristie Kahl
Despite valiant efforts from a rookie player, the women’s basketball team added two losses to its five-game losing streak this past week.
Rider (1-7 overall) made it a close game against Fordham (5-3 overall) Saturday night, despite the 65-56 loss.
In the second half, the Broncs went on an 11-0 run, with freshman Caitlin Bopp making the tying layup to hold the score at 54. Senior Tammy Meyers was able to sink two foul shots, but that was as close as Rider would get. Fordham closed out the last two minutes of play scoring 11 points while Rider missed seven shots from the field.
“Fordham was a good game,” said Head Coach Lynn Milligan. “It was a game where we had an opportunity at the end to win. Our end of the game offense didn’t come through for us, but the kids followed the defensive plan very well. It was a solid game for us that we came up short on.”
Bopp came up big for the Broncs with a double-double, posting 11 points, 15 rebounds and three blocks as she shot 50 percent from the field.
Rider’s leading scorer, Meyers, added 17 points while junior Cintella Spotwood claimed 15 points, five rebounds and tied her career-high with four three-pointer.
The Broncs out-rebounded Fordham 49-35 with a 19-9 offensive advantage while blocking a season-high eight shots.
“We’re trying to find our level of consistency to add to the floor,” Milligan said. “We’re obviously a better defensive team than we’re showing. We’re having too many breakdowns and then offensively just our consistency and our execution have to get better.”
On Tuesday night, Princeton (6-2 overall) traveled down Route 206 to clinch an 83-57 win over the Broncs.
In the first half, both teams were tied at nine before Rider put 12 points on the board to take a 21-9 lead with 11 minutes left in the half. The Tigers bounced back to outscore Rider 9-2 in the final minutes of the half, going into intermission with a 42-32 lead.
Princeton came back out with momentum in the second half jumping out to a 20-4 run, giving the Tigers a 26-point leverage.
“Princeton being a little more mobile than Fordham, I think, hurt us,” Milligan said. “Defensively, we had too many breakdowns.”
Bopp had another clutch game, grabbing a career-high 15 rebounds in 24 minutes of play. Spotwood and Sepulveda added 14 points each for the Broncs while Meyers had 13 points and three assists.
Turnovers killed the Broncs as they turned the ball over 28 times throughout the contest. Rider went 21-51 from the floor as the team shot 43 percent beyond the arc.
The Broncs move on to yet another Ivy League competitor as they travel to Penn tomorrow at 2 p.m.
“In order to be successful, you have to outwork people, and we have to continue to do that and take steps everyday rolling up our sleeves and getting to work,” said Milligan.