Jimmie Taylor puts up a shot over Chavaughn Lewis. Photo by John Blaine

LAWRENCEVILLE — Chasing the leaders in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference the last thing Rider could afford to do was drop a game at Alumni Gymnasium.

But when you don’t finish at the rim and get hammered on the glass that’s what happens.

The Broncs had their three-game winning streak snapped Thursday night as Marist used a strong second half to win 68-61 and send a large and vocal crowd home unhappy.

“They took it from us,” coach Kevin Baggett said.

The difference in the game was Marist center Adam Kemp. In the first meeting — a 66-56 Rider victory — the senior 7-footer was playing his first game back from a right knee injury and didn’t look 100 percent.

On Thursday, he was healthy.

The senior scored 16 points, grabbed 10 rebounds (six offensive) and altered numerous shots at the rim.

The Red Foxes outrebounded the Broncs 47-26 and had 19 offensive boards that led to 23 second-chance points.

“We have this thing anytime we go up against a big guy, man, we want to finger roll and we don’t want to go through a guy and attack a big guy,” Baggett said. “We have to attack Adam Kemp. When he has one foul (until) very late in the game, that tells me we we’re not playing the right way when that happens.”

Rider (12-10, 8-5) missed 2 of 3 free throws in the final 1:13 and instead of being tied, it had to play the foul game. Marist made 7 of 8 to secure the victory.

“I’m just disappointed in myself to be honest,” said senior guard Anthony Myles, who finished with a team-high 17 points but missed one of those crucial free throws down the stretch. “I had a bad turnover down the stretch, a missed free throw. It’s those type of things that affect the game.”

Red Foxes freshman Khallid Hart scored five straight points to put Marist (9-14, 6-7) up 61-56 with 1:19 to go.

Zedric Sadler got a layup to go on the Broncs’ next possession, but the sophomore missed the free throw out of a timeout that would’ve made it a two-point game.

When the Red Foxes were whistled for a 10-second violation after rebounding the miss, Myles was had his layup as he was fouled spill of the rim.

But he spilt a pair and then stepped out of bounds with 34.3 seconds remaining when Rider got the ball back after a Marist turnover.

Danny Stewart finished with 16 points and Jimmie Taylor added 14 for the Broncs, who led at halftime 32-28 but came out cold to start the second as the Red Foxes jumped on top with a 10-2 run.

Myles gave Rider the lead, although brief, with a two-handed jam after a steal with 6:03 remaining.

Hart scored 15 for the Marist and Jay Bowie had 14 and 13 rebounds.

The Broncs, who slipped to fifth in the MAAC one game behind Quinnipiac and Manhattan, only have one day off before playing for the third time this week. That’s against the Bobcats, a team that leads the nation in rebounding margin and is second in rebounds per game.

“We’ve been a resilient team,” Myles said. “We’ve done it before and we’ll do it again.”