March 6, 2005
By JOHN WAWROW
AP Sports Writer
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) - Jason Thompson scored 15 points and added nine rebounds, leading Rider to a 76-74 win over Fairfield in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference semifinal Sunday.
Robert Taylor scored 16 and Jerry Johnson added 15 in helping the Broncs (19-10) advance to the Monday's championship game for the first time since joining the MAAC in 1997-98.
Rider will face Niagara, with the winner earning an automatic NCAA tournament berth. The teams split their two games this season, and both finished with 13-5 conference records, but Niagara earned the tournament's top seed because of a tiebreaker.
Terrence Todd scored 17 points to lead Fairfield (15-15), which dropped to 5-5 in MAAC tournament semifinal games.
Down 76-73, Fairfield had a chance to tie the game when Rider's Terrance Mouton missed a free throw with 13.6 seconds left.
Fairfield's Terrence Todd was fouled with 1.9 seconds left. After hitting the first free throw, Todd missed the second, and teammate DeWitt Maxwell chased down the ball. Maxwell got off a 12-footer from the left baseline, but it bounced off the far side of the rim and out as the buzzer sounded.
Maxwell finished with 16 points.
It was a close game throughout, but Rider never trailed after Thompson hit a 12-footer to put the Broncs up 21-20 with 8:09 remaining.
The closest the Stags came was when Kudjo Sogadzi hit a 3-pointer to cut Rider's lead to 69-68 with 2:17 left. Rider responded with Edwin Muniz's 3-pointer and Johnson hitting two foul shots.
Fairfield senior forward Deng Gai had 15 points and seven rebounds in his final college game. The nation's leading shot-blocker also had one block, giving him 444, tying him with Ohio State's Ken Johnson for sixth on the NCAA career list.
