I made it back from the beautiful Northeast extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and am ready to wrap up the Broncs' 69-68 win over the Mountain Hawks.

First, a link to my gamer in today's paper and one to the box.

Now, a few thoughts:

* Man, what a game! A 12-point second-half comeback, an old fashioned 3-point play that proved decisive, and a buzzer-beater that WOULD have tied the game if it were a 3, not a 2. Too bad virtually no one was there to watch it, which gets me to my next point ...

* The people at Lehigh were great and even provided Dominoes pizza in the media room, so this is nothing against them. But would it have killed any of the students or basketball fans in the area to have actually showed up? Stabler Arena's capacity is listed at 5,600. The crowd today was 982, which I'm willing to bet will be the smallest crowd at a Rider game this year other than the one played at Saint Peter's.

* Harris Mansell has a mild elbow sprain and probably won't play Sunday against Lafayette, but will be back the following Saturday when the Broncs host Cal State Northridge in their home opener. Tommy Dempsey said he's hopeful Justin Robinson and Jermaine Jackson are back for that one too. Jackson, whose knee injury and subsequent arthroscopic surgery occured after Robinson's, is ahead of schedule, while Robinson remains on schedule.

* Seven players combined for 197 of Rider's 200 minutes, but fortunately for the Broncs, nobody appeared tired in the second half, when Rider's full-court press took Lehigh out of its offensive flow and aided the comeback. This team was built for track meets, not low-post battles, so it'll be interesting to see how much Dempsey decides to run and press when everyone's healthy.

* A few more stats that stood out: Novar Gadson shot 3-for-13 from the floor against Saint Joe's (seven points) and 6-for-8 last night (17). ... Rider had eight assists and 15 turnovers against Saint Joe's. Those numbers were 17 and 9, respectively, last night. ... Lehigh out-rebounded the Broncs 45-34 . ... Lehigh's Marquis Hall came in averaging 18 points per game. Last night, he scored seven on 2-for-11 shooting. ... Zahir Carrington, last week's Patriot League Player of the Week, was impresive, scoring 15 oints on 5-of-10 shooting. The big guy even made five of six free throws. ... This isn't really a stat, but chasing after a loose ball in the second half, Pat Mansell jumped up on the press table and nearly knocked over Daryl Fein and Steve Rudenstein's radio equiptment. ... Rider was only 14 of 25 from the line. Mike Ringgold (1-for-4 with an air ball) and Brandon Penn (2-for-5) were a combined 3-for-9.