The Rider Broncs team that everyone in the MAAC expected to see showed up on Saturday afternoon at the Arena at Harbor Yard, at the absolute worst time for Fairfield.
The Stags (15-7, 8-4 MAAC) fell 88-80 to the suddenly surging Broncs (13-11, 6-6) to drop into third place in the conference, a half game ahead of St. Peter’s and behind Iona.
Fairfield allowed Rider to shoot 54 percent from the field in the game.
“We are just not a good defensive team right now. To score eighty points at home and lose, that’s embarrassing,” Head coach Ed Cooley said. “We were disgusting defensively. Until we step up and want to do it with pride, we are only going to beat teams that struggle offensively.”
Fairfield was led by a career-high 24 points by senior forward Mike Evanovich, who was 8-for-11 on three pointers. He started the game 8-for-8 from beyond the arc and the eight made threes ties him with Greg Francis and Jermaine Clark for most in a game in Fairfield history.
“It all felt good, they were finding me in open spots,” Evanovich said. “But it doesn’t matter if we came out with a loss – we lost at home and gave up 88 points – All that [the eight threes and record] doesn’t matter.
“Everyone in the locker room knows why we lost, before the coaches came in. We gave up 88 points and did not play defense. It is on us, we know what we are supposed to do, it is on us to go out and do it,” Evanovich added.
Two Stags finished with double doubles. Freshman point guard Derek Needham added 18 points and 10 assists, but turned the ball over eight times. Senior center Anthony Johnson scored 12 points and pulled down 10 rebounds before fouling out in the game’s final minutes. Yorel Hawkins also chipped in with 14 points.
Cooley was not happy with the free throw disparity (Rider shot 33 free throws and made 26, while Fairfield shot 18, making only nine). Rider star Ryan Thompson, who scored a career high 31 points, was 15-16 from the free throw line.
Cooley said that it is about time that Needham, “gets recognized as a top five player in the league.”
He went on to add, “Everyone who gets a check needs to e working as hard as the players,” saying that when they are not, it is “frustrating.”
Fairfield trailed at halftime 42-37 and cut the Rider lead down to four twice within the final six minutes of the game, but could not get any closer.
The Stags now have a week off before facing St. Peter’s at home on Feb. 5.
More reaction and analysis of the game to come later and in this week’s edition of The Mirror.
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