Thursday, July 14, 2016

Rider releases non-conference schedule

Kevin Baggett and Rider released non-conference schedule Wednesday, with Broncs playing all but two games away from home. (Photo by Vincent Simone/NYC Buckets)

By Brandon Scalea (@brandonscalea)

​A little late to the party, the Rider men’s basketball team finally released its full non-conference schedule yesterday. At first glance, the schedule looks a bit daunting, especially since nine of the 11 games will be played away from Alumni Gym.​

The schedule is highlighted by an appearance in the Gotham Classic and road trips to South Florida and NC State. The Gotham Classic will feature December games for the Broncs, when they will take on Pacific, North Carolina A&T and Massachusetts on the road, before hosting Kennesaw State in a mid-week game on December 14. That home game will be followed by one against Drexel two nights later.

For the first time in three years, Rider will not open the season against local rival Princeton. Instead, its 2016-17 season will begin on November 11 in Virginia, when the Broncs take on Hampton, a program that has made the NCAA Tournament by winning the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference each of the last two years. Three days later, Rider will head to Connecticut to wrap up a home-and-home series with Hartford. At Alumni Gym last year, the Broncs defeated Hartford in double overtime. On November 19, Rider travels to Tampa for a meeting with South Florida of the American Athletic Conference. They will then come back up north to the Bronx for a November 23 game at Rose Hill Gymnasium, taking on Fordham of the Atlantic 10. 

The Broncs will stay in the New York area for a game at Wagner on November 26. The Seahawks, Northeast Conference regular season champions last season, came to Lawrenceville last year and stole one away from Rider, winning on a last-second, put-back dunk by Dwaun Anderson that made SportsCenters Top 10 plays. Wagner came one game away from playing in the NCAA Tournament last year, falling short to Fairleigh Dickinson in the NEC championship game.

The non-conference schedule will be wrapped up on December 28, when the Broncs head down to Raleigh for a matchup with the Wolfpack of NC State. These two programs have met only once before, back in the Old Spice Classic in 2007. NC State was able to escape that game with a 72-63 win.

Riders full schedule will be available in September.

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