Mervin James gives Rider the jolt it needed in win over Monmouth
Rider has needed guys to step up and match Dwight Murray Jr.’s level of production. Enter James, whose contributions Wednesday far exceeded his season-high 17 points.
LAWRENCEVILLE – Mervin James wasn’t credited with an assist on the play, but his drive to the hoop early in the second half Wednesday resulted in the most crowd-pleasing play of the night.
In transition, James received a pass and tried to go up and under. The ball sprayed up off the glass on the far side of the rim – where Ajiri Ogemuno-Johnson helped himself to the two-handed slam.
James didn’t seek the credit I wanted to assign him for a “strategic” miss to set up the dunk.
“You can say that and I ain’t gonna deny it,” James grinned, “but hey man, he turned me up when he made it. That’s what I’ve been waiting for, just to see him be back in that mindset where he can catch anything off the rim because that’s what he does. So when I saw that go down I was like, ‘Yes, we got him back.’ ”
Rider has needed guys to step up and match Dwight Murray Jr.’s level of production. Several Broncs turned in solid performances Wednesday – Ogemuno-Johnson, Allen Powell, Tariq Ingraham, but especially James, whose contributions far exceeded his season-high 17 points.
Moments before Ogemuno-Johnson’s dunk, Monmouth 7-footer Amaan Sandhu slipped behind defenders during a full-court sequence on offense and caught a pass a few steps away from the basket. James caught up to him in a flash and blocked a would-be dunk off the backboard.
James drew a charge in the first half, one of several Hawks fouls Rider managed to create. He defended the five well despite a height disadvantage. He went 7-for-11 for the game and had three rebounds, two on the offensive glass that led to second-chance points – once when he followed his own miss, another when he swung it out to get Powell an open 3.
In short, James embodied Rider’s step up in effort after a seven-day layoff between its loss to Rutgers on Nov. 22 and Wednesday’s win. The Broncs, in fact, had an “effort practice” sometime during that break.
“A lot of boxout drills, lane slides, one-on-ones, you know what I’m saying,” James said. “Just the little things that you can bring by yourself without the coaches asking you to bring.”
Broncs coach Kevin Baggett said he’d been “all over these guys” since the 76-46 loss at Rutgers dropped them to 1-4.
“We needed to challenge one another. We need to compete,” Baggett said. “And again, we all needed to get better, starting with me. I thought our guys did a good job locking in with the scout this week and being attentive to the details that we needed in order for us to win this game.
“Like I said, I’m happy for the win, but like Merv said we still need some more guys to come aboard.”
James is in his second season at Rider after his first two years of college were spent at North Alabama. After a 12-point showing at Providence in the season opener, the 6-foot-7 forward struggled to get shots to fall, going 3-for-12 against Stetson and 2-for-14 against Rutgers.
But when James’ offense is clicking, the inside-outside game between him and Murray becomes a tantalizing prospect.
“We need Merv. Merv knows that,” Baggett said. “Merv is one of our key guys and it was good to see Mervin back playing like Mervin with the energy and the effort. We went to him a lot early, trying to set the tone with him. DJ needs him, we all need him.”
Frustration is mounting for Monmouth, which dropped to 0-8 and remains one of just six winless teams left in Division I. Coach King Rice traded words with some Rider fans while leaving the court at the end of the first half, which escalated to shouting before the team was fully off the floor. A Rider fan seated courtside was ejected, and I saw a senior Rider athletics official come over to give a few fans in the student section a warning during halftime.
Rice later told reporters he would never come back to Rider.
“I’m tired of people talking about my family. That’s too far,” Rice said. “You can say I’m terrible, talk about my team. But leave my wife, my kids out of your mouth. This is so foul. It happens all the time over here.”
Before this season, the Hawks were obligated to visit Rider every year for a MAAC game. That’s no longer the case with Monmouth now a member of the CAA.
Baggett, who’d found out what had happened, made a point of thanking Rice for scheduling the game before taking any questions.
“King Rice and I go back a ways,” he said. “I’m thankful for him because when I couldn’t get a home game, I called King and asked him to bring his young team here to play us here and then we’d start the series over again. It’s a great series between us, it’s been a great series, so I’m thankful to the fact that he was one of few teams that wanted to come in and play us in here.”
The schedule Rice created for Monmouth also included trips to Seton Hall, Virginia, Illinois, Patriot League preseason favorite Colgate, Manhattan, Princeton and Syracuse. It’s a monster, and two freshman starters (Jack Collins and Sandhu) have to learn as they go. For now, the Hawks will need to regroup and try to get back to fundamentals – something that worked out for Rider this week.
………
Thanks for reading, as always. Time to clean the glass and get on with our Thursday:
Sometimes it’s those free points that separate good or improving teams from poor ones. Rider made 20 of 27 foul shots Wednesday. Monmouth made 16 of 29. Rider’s free-throw percentage on the season actually moved down a tick to 77.6%, still good for 31st in all of Division I. Monmouth has made just 58.7% on the year, 353rd of 363 teams.
Rutgers dropped a 68-61 decision at Miami on Wednesday night in a close affair, which saw the Scarlet Knights let go of an 11-point lead early in the second half till it was tied 61-61 with 2:45 to play. Coach Steve Pikiell wasn’t too broken up, noting “a few plays down the stretch we’ll finish off (next time) and hopefully get into the swing of things.” Paul Mulcahy (shoulder) still isn’t cleared for contact, but Caleb McConnell returned to the starting lineup and went for 16 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals. Rutgers was outshot 49.1% to 37.3% but still had a chance to win thanks to a 39-29 rebounding advantage.
Princeton is 5-2 after beating Division III Cairn 92-58. My tongue is planted right in my cheek when I say this game was no good for players’ stat lines – Tosan Evbuomwan’s scoring average is going to drop after having just six points! Same for Ryan Langborg and Matt Allocco’s five apiece! (No starter played more than 14 minutes, that’s why; 15 Tigers saw the court and all 15 scored.)
Something I missed after Seton Hall’s loss to Siena last Sunday: Coach Shaheen Holloway saying in his postgame radio interview that his team “came out flat. No energy. Never been a part of something where guys don’t want to play basketball.” Woah. Hopefully tonight’s visit to the famed Allen Fieldhouse fixes the “want” question, if there is one. I’ll have an eye on the Pirates’ game against No. 9 Kansas, wondering if this group can put up a fight against the defending national champions or if they face a possible blowout.