Staten Island, N.Y. >> It shouldn’t have been as close as it finished, but Rider made the short trip back to New Jersey above .500 and feeling good about itself entering the New Year.

The Broncs picked up their third straight victory and fifth in their last six games, holding off a late Wagner rally for a 76-71 triumph Monday night at the Spiro Sports Center.

“We want some of them back where we could have competed better, but we’re feeling good,” sophomore guard Jimmie Taylor said. “We’re going to 2015 off a win and we’re going into MAAC play with some confidence and momentum.”

Rider (7-6) almost let a lot of solid work slip away in a nervy final three minutes in which it saw a 13-point lead get whittled down to three with 1:45 remaining.

But the Broncs found a way to hang on as Zedric Sadler, Khalil Alford and Matt Lopez all scored baskets in the final 1:11.

“We lost our composure a little bit,” said head coach Kevin Baggett, who watched his team concede two four-point plays to the Seahawks’ Romone Saunders in the last five minutes.

“I think we looked at the scoreboard and thought, ‘We got this in the bag,’” said Taylor, referring to Rider’s 68-55 lead with 2:45 left. “We let up. We really did.”

Taylor had his best game of the season, posting a career-high 25 points, while Sadler added 17 off the bench and Matt Lopez finished with 12 and 13 rebounds for his second straight double-double.

“We’re trying to have a balanced attack because we have a lot of guys that can score,” Taylor said. “We don’t want to have selfish guys — instead we try to distribute so everybody can score.”

Taylor also credited his teammates for encouraging him to attack the basket.

“We came in with a game plan to be on the attack because we knew they were going to be aggressive,” said Taylor, also joking that he had to work off a few extra holiday pounds following an 11-day layoff. “We had to be aggressive and knew it was going to be a dogfight from the beginning.”

Taylor finished 8 of 14 from the floor and got  to the foul line 12 times.

“That’s something that we’ve constantly been preaching in practice, guys going downhill, going to the basket a little more and getting to the free throw line,” Baggett said. “I’m happy to see that part of Jimmie, being more aggressive than he was early on.”

Saunders paced Wagner (2-9) with 20 points and Marcus Burton and JoJo Cooper added 14 each. The Seahawks have lost six in a row.

Baggett also worked in 10 different players, getting nine of them double-digit minutes, something the coach said he needs to have with Kahlil Thomas sidelined four weeks with a stress fracture in his left foot.

The Broncs led for all but 51 early seconds.

“I thought we could have done a little better, but I’m certainly always happy when we’re over .500,” Baggett said. “We’ve played well for the most part, so I’m excited about that. … I like where we’re headed, I like the team that we have and I like the chemistry with this group.”

NOTE >> This was the 21st meeting between the former Northeast Conference rivals and first time they’ve met in back-to-back seasons since Rider left for the MAAC in 1997. The Broncs’ most famous victory came in the 1993 NEC title game over Wagner when Hall of Famer Darrick Suber hit a buzzer-beater that sent Rider to the NCAA tournament.