Box Score The Canisius Golden Griffins competed against the Rider Broncs on Sunday afternoon and despite a strong late push by the Griffs, the Blue and Gold fell to the Broncs, 52-51. Rider was lifted by Manon Pellet's two free-throws with 0.3 seconds giving the home team the one point lead, and ultimately the victory.
With the loss Canisius falls to 8-13 overall and 6-6 in the MAAC, while Rider improves to 7-14 overall and 4-7 in conference play. The Griffs were led offensively by junior Tiahana Mills who had a team-high 14 points in 37 minutes of action. Behind Mills was Crystal Porter with 10 points and seven boards and Emily Weber, nine points.
Canisius went into the locker-room at the half down two points, and came out making a strong push in the final 20 minutes of regulation. The Griffs outscored the Broncs 28-27 in the final 20 minutes of action but the team was unable to overcome a late-push by Rider, including the two free-throws by Pellet.
With 1:12 left to play in the game, the Broncs led 50-46, but a jumper by Mills with 1:01 left cut the home-teams lead down to two points. A quick steal by senior Kayla Hoohuli and then a made free-throw cut the Broncs lead down to one with 41 seconds to play. After two missed foul shots by the Broncs, Emily Weber got to the line and hit two from the charity stripe to give the Griffs a 51-50 lead with nine seconds left, but the Griffs fouled Pellet and the guard sank two free-throws to give the Broncs the late victory.
The Griffs out-scored the Broncs 26-24 in the paint and also had six fast-break points compared to the two of Rider, but the home-teams bench outscored Canisius 26-8, contributing to the victory. Rider was led by 18 points from Lashay Banks and Robin Perkins contributed with 13 of her own to lead the home-squad.
The next game for Canisius will be on Thursday, Feb. 5 when the Blue and Gold host Fairfield on Kids Day at the Koessler Athletic Center at 11:00 a.m.
Game Notes: The meeting between the Griffs and Broncs was the 38th of all-time with the Griffs lead now being cut down to 30-8… with the loss head coach Terry Zeh falls to 18-3 all-time against the Broncs…..freshman Abby Schwenk's 16 minutes played, tied a career-high for the forward….this is the second one-point loss of the season for the Griffs, with the first one coming against Siena on Jan. 11…With her 10 points, Crystal Porter has scored at least 10 points in five of her last seven games.
