FAIRFIELD, Conn. -- With Warren Edney, Herbie Allen, and Sean Grzeck sitting in sweats at the end of the bench, Head Coach Ed Cooley did his best to put together a lineup against Rider University. The mixing and matching fell short of expectations in a 66-49 loss to Rider University.

Coach Cooley started two freshmen, two sophomores and a junior on Friday night, putting Yorel Hawkins, Ryan Olander, as well as Greg Nero at the forward slots and placing Lyndon Jordan and Sean Crawford at the guard positions. Olander responded with his best statistical night of the season, posting a team-high nine rebounds and a personal-best eight points. Hawkins also played with intensity, finishing the game with nine points and eight caroms.

The Stags started the game well in front of the sold out crowd of 2,479, scoring the first five points to take its biggest lead. Fairfield still held the lead a few minutes later at 9-6, but Rider responded with its own 5-0 spurt to take the lead by two points, 11-9. Jonathan Han buried a three-point shot with 10:22 on the clock to regain the Fairfield edge, 12-11, which would be the team's final lead of the game.

The Broncs finished the half with a 19-7 run that gave the visiting team a double digit lead at intermission, 32-19. Olander led all Fairfield scorers with five points and was tops with five caroms. Novar Gadson and Justin Robinson tallied 11 and 10 points for the Broncs in the opening 20 minutes.

Fairfield never came within single digits of Rider in the second half, but did make a 7-0 run early in the second half that cut an 18-point deficit to 11 points behind a three pointer from Hawkins and a layup from Han and Greg Nero. Rider answered with five straight points to push the lead back to 16 points with 12:47 left and the Stags never came closer than 14 points the rest of the way.

Ahthony Johnson came off the bench to lead all Fairfield scorers wtih 11 points. Gadson was the game's top scorer wtih 23 points, while Robinson added 15 markers for the Broncs.

The Stags return to action on Monday, January 26 when they head to Manhattan College for a 7 pm tip.