Men's Basketball: Raiders fall in home-opener to Lesley

(Nashua, N.H.) The Rivier University Men's Basketball team dropped their home opener this evening to visiting Lesley University, 77-62 in the opening game of the 2017 Rivier Tip-Off Classic inside the Muldoon Gymnasium. The game was also the first ever meeting between the two Head Coaches – Rivier's Lance Bisson & Lesley's Chris Giordano – who were teammates on the only Great Northeast Athletic Conference Championship squad in Rivier Men's Basketball history in the 2006-07 season.

The contest was played pretty evenly throughout the first 15 minutes of action until the Lynx (1-1 overall) pulled away with a 16-8 run to close out the half for the 46-33 lead. The Raiders, however, would battle back bringing the game within 10 after trailing 60-37 seven minutes into the second stanza. Although the veteran Lynx weathered the storm and held on to earn their first victory of the season.

Freshman Ian Wade (Windsor Locks, Conn.) was the leading scorer for Rivier as he totaled a double-double with 13 points & 10 rebounds. Freshman Tyler Bradanese (Billerica, Mass.) added 12 points and seven rebounds while junior Isiah Marks (Brooklyn, N.Y.) chipped in with nine points. Junior Angel Perez (Miami, Fla.) provided a spark off the bench with eight points.

Junior sharp-shooter Joey Martin (Melbourne, Fla.) paced the Lesley offense with 24 points, including knocking down 5-of-10 from beyond the arc. Matin was also dominant along the glass as he pulled down a game-high of 14 rebounds. Senior Will Gibson (Melbourne, Fla.) and junior Xeo Golding (Windermere, Fla.) also reached the double-digit scoring plateau with 13 & 10 points, respectively.

The 2017 Rivier Tip-Off Classic continues tomorrow afternoon as Lesley will return to the Muldoon to face Unity College in 1pm contest. Rivier will close out the classic with a 1pm game time on Sunday against Unity.