ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — The Bobcats sat back and watched Tuesday night’s duel between No. 8 Rider Broncs and No. 9 Siena Saints for the second straight season.
The road to their first MAAC Conference championship will start with a face-off against Rider, who in the final moments of the opening round, sealed the victory with a graduate student forward Tariq Ingraham’s layup.
In March anything can happen, and Rider hopes to capitalize on that unpredictability.
“This is MAAC tournament time,” Rider head coach Kevin Baggett said. “We’re going to be there, we’re going to compete, we’re going to give them our best shot, and we know we got to get them off the glass.”
Quinnipiac won both regular-season matchups against Rider, but not by much. In the conference opener, Rider took the Bobcats to the brink on their home court. With the game tied with 1:47 left on the clock, senior guard Doug Young and MAAC Player of the Year Amarri Monroe provided five quick points to put the game out of reach.
In the rematch on Jan. 25, Rider led at the break, after shooting 56% from the field and perfect from beyond the arc in four attempts. The Bobcats, however, were only down three heading into the half.
“In the first half, there was no rhythm, there was no flow to it,” Pecora said on Jan. 25. “(Rider) came out of scoring. The basketball defensive intensity wasn’t where it’s been. Then in the second half, we hold them to 17% from the floor. That’s the kind of defensive team we can be, but it’s got to be a consistent effort.”
For Rider, the strong outings from Ingraham (19 points and 13 rebounds) and freshman guard Flash Burton (17 points) were key contributors to their come-from-behind victory over the Saints and will be vital players in pulling off the upset over the Bobcats.
“I think (Burton is) going to be a fine player,” Rider’s graduate student guard TJ Weeks Jr. said. “He looks like a junior or senior out there. Towards the end of the season, he’s feeling comfortable making the right play and right shot.”
The Broncs face a tough road ahead of them, with the Bobcats, who are led by two All-MAAC First Team players in junior forward Amarri Monroe and graduate student center Paul Otieno.
In both matchups, Monroe was dominant, posting double-doubles en route to the season sweep. Otieno, however, struggled against Rider, finishing with 19 points and 13 rebounds in the two games combined.
Ingraham was a thorn in Otieno’s side, having two double-doubles and three blocks. If Otieno can flip a switch and get back to his All-MAAC First Team self, it will be an extra incentive to the Bobcats.
But the Bobcats have more than Monroe and Otieno, something that coaches are starting to plan around to stop Quinnipiac’s depth.
“We got to really focus on making sure that we know what (graduate student guard) Savion (Lewis) is going to do,” Baggett said. “Because, again, he’s a great point guard, and we know what Monroe is going to do. But again, it’s the other guys that we can’t allow to have big nights against us.”
Tip-off for the quarterfinals is set for 6:30 p.m., with the winner advancing to Friday’s MAAC Semifinal against either No. 4 Iona or No. 5 Manhattan.
