Rider 58, Saint Peter's 49: Ray Floriani's Tempo-Free Analysis

Rider's Jimmie Taylor defends Desi Washington of Saint Peter's. (Photo courtesy of Ray Floriani)

Jersey City, NJ - If you truly love defensive, grind-it-out style games, the Yanitelli Center was the place to be on Thursday. Rider imposed their defensive will, posting a 58-49 victory over Saint Peter's. The pace and efficiency:

Possessions: Saint Peter's 63, Rider 62

Offensive Efficiency: Rider 94, Saint Peter's 78

The Four Factors:

eFG%: Rider 40, Saint Peter's 35

FT Rate: Rider 61, Saint Peter's 33

OREB%: Rider 39, Saint Peter's 33

TO Rate: Both 21

What both teams did well: Defend. Rider, entering with a conference-best 90 defensive efficiency, kept Saint Peter's well under that figure. Chalk it up to forcing the Peacocks into a 21% turnover rate and a 35% eFG mark. Saint Peter's was just 2-of-15 shooting from long range.

On their end, Saint Peter's also imposed a 21% turnover rate on their opponents. In addition, they limited the Broncs to 40% eFG as Rider shot 3-of-14 from three-point range, a strong enough defensive performance to win on many a night. Just not this one.

The numbers will not tell it all, but a great deal of credit goes to Rider’s ability to make those plays in the stretch. The Broncs converted in the paint the crucial last few minutes, with Junior Fortunat (9 points on 4-of-5 shooting) doing the most damage.

Leading scorers and offensive efficiency:
Rider, Teddy Okereafor (12 points, OE .462)
Saint Peter's, Quadir Welton (15 points, OE .700)

Okereafor's efficiency was borderline, a little on the low side. Welton's, on the other hand, showed an efficiency on the edge of outstanding. Welton was the lone Saint Peter's player to shoot 50 percent (7-of-14) from the floor. Fortunat's 4-of-5 field goal shooting was Rider’s only performance of 50% or better from the floor. The two respective leading scorers were the only double digit scorers on the evening, a defensive battle indeed.

Rider is 8-3 in MAAC play, while Saint Peter's falls to 4-7.

“We played good defense. I knew this was going to be a grind. It’s not easy playing them (Saint Peter's) by any stretch.” -­ Rider coach Kevin Baggett

“We had open looks that did not fall but our paint defense was not very good down the stretch.” ­- Saint Peter's coach John Dunne