Dwight Murray’s floater in the lane authored biggest upset in recent MAAC tournament memory as Rider shocked Iona. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — For ten years, Kevin Baggett has had to answer questions of why he was unable to lead his Rider team past the quarterfinals of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament.
A decade of demons was exorcised in emphatic fashion Wednesday, at the expense of a Hall of Fame counterpart and his prohibitive league favorite.
In an instant March classic, Rider and Iona traded blows throughout their 40-minute epic, with Dwight Murray, Jr. providing the coup de grace on a floater in the lane with 7.7 seconds remaining in regulation for the final points of a 71-70 Broncs victory that sent shockwaves across the nation, and relegated Rick Pitino’s regular season champion Gaels to the National Invitation Tournament.
“First of all, thank God that I don’t have to answer not getting past the quarterfinal ever again,” a jubilant and relieved Baggett exclaimed after the last of Murray’s 21 points helped Rider overcome foul trouble for both Dimencio Vaughn and Mervin James to earn its second tournament win in as many days. “Thank God. Thank you, Jesus.”
“It wasn’t always pretty. We’ve been in this position a lot, we’ve come on the losing end of it a lot this year. We kept saying we believed in this team, we believed all year long. I’m just thankful for them all. I appreciate them all for their efforts and their hard work. It’s all about these guys.”
With just over two minutes to go, it looked as though Rider (14-18) may have come up one play short after matching Iona punch for punch down the stretch, as two straight 3-pointers from Elijah Joiner put the Gaels ahead, 70-65. But Allen Powell responded with a triple of his own, quickly cutting the deficit to two. Iona had another clean look at a three when Dylan van Eyck created space straight away, but it rimmed out and into the hands of Ajiri Ogemuno-Johnson. The Broncs split two free throws on that possession when James sank the first, but missed the second, on which Vaughn secured a tie-up with the possession arrow in his team’s favor.
With a new lease on life, Rider attempted to take the lead, but a double-teamed Ogemuno-Johnson lost track of the shot clock and found a cutting Powell after the buzzer sounded. Forced to foul, the Broncs sent Iona freshman Walter Clayton, Jr. to the free throw line, where he missed the front end of a 1-and-1 to set the stage for Murray’s heroics.
“I really wasn’t stuck,” said Murray, who appeared to hesitate before finding the shot that proved pure. “I was just looking for the dunk down, but they never moved. Then when I turned around the first time, I saw that I had them on my back, so I did it again and he was there again, so I threw it up. That’s my shot. I practice that every day, it’s something that I do all the time and I’m comfortable with.”
“DJ asked me when they were shooting free throws if I wanted to call timeout,” Baggett recalled. “I wasn’t going to give them a chance to set up or do anything different. We called a play, obviously DJ got in pretty deep and guys were moving, so they were scrambling. And then when DJ spun, he hit the big shot. I’ve seen him make this shot several times.”
Iona still had one last chance to steal victory from the jaws of defeat, but an errant pass from Joiner found the Gaels’ bench in the waning seconds, turning the ball over and allowing Rider to dribble out the clock.
“Sometimes you think that you lose the game because you miss a free throw,” Pitino said as Iona (25-7) now awaits its NIT opponent. “But we lost the game because we didn’t switch out and we gave a three, we lost the game because we didn’t block out on the foul line and get the loose ball. It always comes down to defense.”
“I’m proud of my guys, they gave me a great season. But when you’re in a one-bid league, you suffer. I don’t like it. When I was at Louisville and Kentucky, sometimes you’re just playing for seeds. This was disappointing.”
Rider, after trailing 30-28 at halftime, got 19 of Murray’s 21 markers in the second half to complement Ogemuno-Johnson, who recorded his second consecutive double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds. The Broncs now get to enjoy a day off before Friday’s semifinal, where they will meet the winner of Thursday’s quarterfinal showdown between Monmouth and Niagara on a stage the program has not seen since 2011. At the present moment, this iteration of the Broncs is playing with house money in a sense, perhaps the best possible feeling at this juncture.
“If I win this whole thing — well, when we win this whole thing — it’s going to shock the whole world,” Murray gushed. “At this point, I just want to do it for my team. Coach gave me a chance here, and I took advantage of it. That’s the difference.”
“I’ve been doing a lot of praying, hoping the good Lord would answer this one for me,” a candid Baggett quipped. “I got tired of hearing about it, I got tired of people writing about it, so again, I thank these guys for getting me off the schneid and not having to hear that again.”
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