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Pictured Above: Freshman guard Romone Saunders (photo by Dave Saffran)

Daly Dose of Hoops Recap (Jaden Daly)

Staten Island Advance Recap (Cormac Gordon)

Staten Island, NY – Freshman guard Romone Saunders (Temple Hills, MD/Mt. Zion Prep) tossed in a career-high 20 points, capped off by two four-point plays, to lead three Wagner players in double figures but it was not enough to overcome a 25-point outing by Rider's Jimmie Taylor as the Broncs held off a furious Seahawk comeback effort in posting a 76-71 victory at the Spiro Sports Center tonight.
 
Trailing 68-55 with 2:41 to play following a Taylor layup, Wagner embarked on a 11-2 run in less than a minute, cutting the deficit to 69-66 with 1:45 left on an old-fashioned three-point play by junior forward Stedman Allen (Bronx, NY/Labette CC). Rider answered with a clutch three-point jumper by Zedric Sadler with 1:14 left that made it a 72-66 game and the Broncs managed to hang on for the five-point win.
 
Stedman started the Seahawks' closing run with a tip-in at the 2:32 mark to make it 68-57. Four straight points by Saunders, his second four-point play of the night drew the Seahawks to within seven at 68-61.

Taylor then pushed the lead to 69-61 after making one-of-two free throws before a driving layup by freshman guard JoJo Cooper (Wilmington, DE/Concord) sliced the deficit to six at 69-63 at 2:01.
 
Senior guard Marcus Burton (Charlotte, NC/David W. Butler) then came up with a steal that led to Allen's three-point play after a goaltending and foul were assessed to Rider.  On the ensuing Broncs' possession, Sadler drilled his fifth three-pointer that quelled the Seahawks rally and steadied the Broncs as the visitors held on. Wagner took their only lead of the contest when sophomore forward Greg Senat (Elmont, NY/Elmont) scored the first basket of the contest at the 19:27 mark.  Over the first 12 minutes of the stanza, the game was within reach as the lead didn't extend beyond five, 18-13, in favor of the visitors after sophomore Seahawk forward Nolan Long (Waterford, CT/South Kent Prep) converted one-of-two from the free-throw line.  Over the final 9:06 of the half, Rider outscored the Seahawks, 18-12, to take a 36-25 lead into the intermission.

As the second half opened, so did Wagner's offense, as the home team streaked out to a 7-0 run over the first two minutes to cut the deficit to 36-32.  Over the next 13 minutes of action, the Broncs held the home team to just 4-of-14 shooting from the floor, while extending their lead to 58-49 before Saunders took over. The athletic 6-foot-3 inch neophyte was able to roll to the right corner, where he received the pass from Burton and sank the corner three-pointer, cutting the Rider lead to 58-52 with 5:08 remaining in regulation.



After Saunders' career-night, Burton finished with 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting, to go with three rebounds, three steals and two assists in 32 minutes while Cooper supplied 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting, along with recording  team highs with seven rebounds and four assists in an active 33-minute stint. Allen added eight points and three rebounds for the Seahawks.
 
Sadler was Rider's second-leading scorer on the night, finishing with 17 points, 15 of which coming from long range (5-of-7) while 7-0 center Matt Lopez posted a double-double, with 12 points and a game-high 13 caroms. Rider took a slight edge on the board, 39-36, while Wagner's feisty defense forced 12 turnovers which led to 16 points.  Wagner finished the game shooting 43.6 percent from the field while Rider converted 45.5 percent from the floor, including 9-of-23 from the outside. 
 
In dropping their sixth straight game, Wagner concludes its non-conference slate with a 2-9 recording while Rider, a member of the MAAC and a former Northeast Conference (NEC) foe, improves to 7-6.
 
The Seahawks open their 18-game NEC schedule on Saturday, January 3 at Saint Francis U in a 4:00 pm start in the second game of a doubleheader with the Wagner and Red Flash women's teams meeting in a 1:00 pm clash.
 
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