Saint Peter’s closes out Rider with late run, retains MAAC lead

By Andrew Hefner (@Ahef_NJ)

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Shocking seasons, both good and bad, for both Rider and Saint Peter’s produced, unsurprisingly, a shocking game.

Despite being on opposite ends of the current MAAC standings, the Peacocks had to fight through a back-and-forth duel until the end to walk away with their third straight conference win, 69-58, over the Broncs.

Saint Peter’s, projected 11th of 13 teams in the MAAC in the preseason, has put on a show so far this year, most recently taking down the top two teams in the conference, Merrimack and Quinnipiac, in emphatic victories, pushing the Peacocks to the top of the leaderboard at 7-1 in league play.

Rider, while not having as surprising a season as their fellow Garden State school, has consistently been the worst team in the MAAC this year, only winning its second game of the season just last week in a surprising upset over Iona. Before that game, the Broncs had not won since November 15. 

The expectations were clear for Saturday's matchup, but Rider set out to defy all odds and came awfully close. 

“Major props and respect to Rider,” said Peacocks head coach, Bashir Mason. “Those guys fought, they battled, they really challenged us hard. They’ve got the right formula to have success. They're big, they're physical, they dominate the paint, they dominate the glass. And, they’ve got their two guards that are as good as anybody in the league.”

Rider kept the game close early thanks to star sophomore guard Flash Burton, who put up six points in the first four minutes of action to keep the Broncs pacing well with the quick-moving and decisive Saint Peter’s offense. Burton, alongside New Jersey native and senior Zion Cruz, has been the real driving engine of Rider through the tough stretch, each averaging 12.5 points per game. 

Following a down game at Quinnipiac, senior Zaakir Williamson, one of the few returners from last season to Saint Peter’s, got off to a hot start as well, picking up 10 points and four rebounds in the first half, leading the Peacocks. Williamson transferred in from Buffalo ahead of his junior season in Jersey City, in which he started just six games. Now an everyday starter, Williamson has made a big mark on where the program stands today. 

“He stayed bad the entire game at Quinnipiac,” recalled Mason about Williamson’s performance. “But without another conversation, just his maturity and him knowing what his impact is on our team, I thought today was an incredible response by him. And it's something that we didn't see a year ago. We don't pull this one out if he's not who he was today.”

Williamson finished with a career-high 20 points and 11 rebounds for the Peacocks, good for a double-double while being the X-factor Mason and Saint Peter’s needed to lock down the win. 

The turnover plague had already begun for the Broncs as the first half wound down, when two straight slams off giveaways by TJ Robinson and Jahki Gupton began to extend a lead that would later grow to 12 points. Robinson picked up seven points in the final ten minutes of the first half, though a 6-0 run from the Broncs to close the half took Rider into the locker room down just five points, at 34-29. 

Rejuvenated and ready to continue to claw back, Rider exited the locker room with fire, taking a lead within the first five minutes of the fresh half, much in part due to two big threes drained by Cruz on back-to-back possessions. With the game continuing to move fast, that lead eventually grew to 48-42 in favor of the Broncs.

“Rider did a great job by pounding the ball inside and hitting the offensive glass and switching into a matchup zone,” said Mason. “They wanted to make it a bang-bang game and try to pull it out down the stretch. So, we wanted to make it uptempo a little bit and try to get more shots at the rim than they did, which I thought worked during that stretch.”

After a timeout and a new direction for the Peacocks, they quickly fired back, scoring nine unanswered points to retake the lead. Saint Peter’s struck hard as Rider turned over the ball ten times after the Broncs’ biggest lead of the night, crippling the offensive push. 

“It was great,” said Mason of Saint Peter’s late-game defense. “We played a lot of games in a short amount of time and there was some fatigue there from our guys, so their defense was great today to really buckle down and get those stops. Their desire to want to do those things was great. We had to fight today, and we did that.”

To cement the victory, a Lucas Scroggins putback electrified the crowd and the Peacocks one last time as they then scored 11 straight points in the final seven minutes of play with no Rider response before the Broncs put up one layup to put the final score at 69-58. 

Saint Peter’s finished the game with four players in double figures, two of whom — Scroggins and Robinson — did not start. 

“Our focus daily is on playing hard,” said Mason. “And when you know that everybody that's going to go in the game, they're going to play hard, then basketball is going to take care of itself. All of these guys can dribble past and shoot. We just focus on playing hard.” 

A “play hard” victory cemented another win in the sensational season Mason and the Peacocks are having in Jersey City, and set them up for a pivotal matchup against Iona at home on Monday. 

“Just another day in the MAAC for me,” Mason quipped. “I think we're an 11th-place team that I'm probably overachieving right now, and I don't know how we're going to keep this thing going.”