Anthony Myles with a jam/ Photo by JOHN BLAINE

LAWRENCEVILLE — Anthony Myles had the hot hand, so Rider kept on feeding him.

Myles matched a career-high 23 points, Jon Thompson added 18 and the Broncs pulled within two games of first-place Niagara following a 72-69 victory Thursday night at Alumni Gymnasium.

“I don’t ever think we were ever out of (the mix),” said Myles, who finished 8 of 13 from the floor, including four 3s. “It was one of those things where we were fighting to stay consistent. Rather than dropping we want to go up instead of down.”

Niagara played without leading scorer Antoine Mason. The sophomore guard, who’s second in the MAAC in scoring at 18.9 points per game, injured his ankle in a double-overtime loss on Feb. 2 to Loyola.

He warmed up with the team and dressed for the game, but did not play.

“We want to be careful with this,” said coach Joe Mihalich. “We don’t want it to be a nagging thing so I guess we err on the side of caution. He’s got a little ankle sprain so it’s day-to-day. He just didn’t feel like there was a lot of stuff he could do.”

Both Rider coach Kevin Baggett and Myles said that didn’t change their approach.

“I don’t get into that,” Baggett said. “Whoever is on the court at that time is who we worry about. I didn’t even mention it to the team.”

Added Myles: “We know that Niagara is very talented. He’s obviously one of their best players, but they have a lot of firepower and we knew that coming out.”

The Broncs (13-12, 8-5) came out cold from beyond the arc, connecting on just 1 of 12, but picked it up in the second half.

They hit five 3-pointers after intermission — three by Myles and two by Thompson (6 of 24 for the game; 5 of 12 in the period) — and built a lead as large as 10 with 7:30 remaining when Thompson buried a long-range effort.

Even with 16.7 point-per-game guard Juan’ya Green struggling — he didn’t make his only field goal until the 10:14 mark of the second half — the Purple Eagles hung around.

Ameen Tanksley scored a career-high 29 points and Marvin Jordan (11 points), starting in place of Mason, buried two late 3s, pulling Niagara within four inside the final minute as the Broncs made things interesting, missing 5 of their final 10 free throws.

“Credit goes to Rider, as you say in the locker room, they punked us,” Mihalich said. “They deserved to win. They were tougher than us.”

The Broncs pushed the advantage back to 10 with 1:40 to go when Thompson converted a conventional three-point play. Tanksley’s tough floater with just over five minutes remaining helped Niagara cut Rider’s first 10-point lead in half.

Thompson scored 15 of his 18 points in the second half.

“Jon is the heart and soul of this team,” Baggett said. “He knows when to pick his spots. When the game is on the line, he’s going to make something happen.”

Danny Stewart finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds for Rider, which has won six straight over Niagara in Lawrenceville.

Green scored seven points on 1 of 16 shooting for the Purple Eagles (14-10, 10-3), who have dropped two straight following a 10-game conference-winning streak that vaulted them into first place.

Niagara still holds a two-game lead over Rider, Iona and Canisius. The Gaels lost in double-overtime to Marist and the Griffs fell at Manhattan. Idle Loyola is 1 1/2 games back.

For those involved, that’s just the nature of the MAAC.

“Very crazy,” Stewart said. “We could hear during the game that Marist and Iona are going at it. There was another game last week. It’s very crazy. The league is wide open.”